When Derrick Henry cruised into the end zone for a 2-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter Sunday, he gave the Ravens a two-score lead and M&T Bank Stadium was rocking.
The New England Patriots hadn’t stopped Henry all night and they were seemingly in for a heavy dose down the stretch.
However, Henry didn’t see the field after that moment.
Henry’s absence on the Ravens’ ensuing drive, when they were trying to answer a Patriots touchdown, was one of the biggest questions coming out of the Ravens’ 28-24 loss to the New England Patriots on “Sunday Night Football.”
Instead of Henry, the Ravens turned to Keaton Mitchell for the entirety of that drive.
“I don’t like the drive at all,” Head Coach John Harbaugh said. “Looking back, would I rather have had Derrick starting the drive? Yes. But Derrick was kind of ready for Keaton to start that drive. And then he was planning on coming in next. So, they were working that rotation.”
Leading by three points with just under nine minutes left, the Ravens gave Mitchell two carries on that drive. The first went for four yards and the second was stopped for no gain.
Mitchell has been a superb change-of-pace from Henry’s bruising downhill style for much of the second half of the season, but he wasn’t nearly as effective against the Patriots as Henry on this night. While Henry had 18 carries for 128 yards and two scores, Mitchell had nine rushes for 13 yards.
Still, Henry said he wasn’t surprised that he wasn’t in the game at the start of that drive.
“We’ve been doing a rotation for I don’t know how many weeks. Keaton has been doing a great job in the run game, and we are both in there doing the best we can,” Henry said. “We have a lot of good players, so everybody has to get their touches and get opportunities, and Keaton is deserving of it.”
