The King has a fumbling problem.
Derrick Henry fumbled for the third time in three games, with Monday night's massive lost pigskin helping sink the Baltimore Ravens to 1-2 after a 38-30 loss to the Detroit Lions.
"I'm at a loss for words," Henry said. "I apologize to Flock Nation. It's not a good feeling. I'm going to keep working to get it fixed."
With under nine minutes left in the fourth quarter of a four-point game, Baltimore forced a three-and-out to get the ball back with a chance to pull ahead. On the first Ravens snap, Henry took the ball and ran left. Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, who was tracking Lamar Jackson to open the play, came from behind Henry and perfectly puched the ball out of the running back's hand. Cornerback D.J. Reed pounced on the pigskin, allowing the Lions to push the lead.
The Henry miscue was strikingly similar to the Week 1 flub that allowed the Buffalo Bills to storm back from a big fourth-quarter deficit. The back also fumbled in Week 2, but the Ravens recovered.
"It's just crazy. Three fumbles [in three games] straight," Henry said. "I'm trying every day to fix the problem that just keeps occurring, so I'm trying to work on it. I'm my worst critic, so I'm not going to try to beat myself up too much, but it's hard not to when it's consecutive and consistent [instances] of me doing the same thing."
Henry was apoplectic on the sideline, slamming his helmet and looking exasperated by the latest fumble.
The three straight games with a fumble tie for the longest such streak of his career (Week 14-16, 2022). Last year, Henry fumbled just three times on 325 carries. He's hit that figure on just 41 this season. In 10 years, he's only fumbled more than three times in an entire season twice. In five of those campaigns, he's had one or fewer.
"It hasn't been (a problem), and I don't think it'll be going forward, but we have to get it fixed," Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said when asked about Henry's fumbling issue. "That was kind of a blind shot there. I thought he had the ball in good position. I thought the defender got a good look at it, though. It was kind of a retrace cutback play. So, [it was] a little bit of the perfect storm, but still, we just want to protect the football; all our guys do, and we have to do it. We have to be good at it."
The fumbling was only part of the Ravens' offensive concerns Monday night. The unit was held to just 85 total rushing yards. It marked the first time Baltimore has generated fewer than 100 rushing yards in back-to-back games since Lamar Jackson became the starter in Week 11, 2018, per NFL Research.
Henry was held to 50 rushing yards on 12 carries with a first-quarter rushing touchdown and the fumble. The bulldozing back generated 50 or fewer rushing yards in consecutive games for the first time since Weeks 14-15, 2023.
Henry and the Ravens must figure out the running game issues swiftly, with a short week against the Kansas City Chiefs (1-2) in Week 4.
