For anyone wondering how long it took Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry to get over his team’s Divisional Round loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, it hasn’t happened yet.
Henry is in Los Angeles, and with that, has seen a lot of advertisements for Super Bowl LVI. Whenever he sees something about the game, he gets upset.
“When I see anything about football, whether I am watching TV or see something on my phone about football, it brings that sick feeling back,” Henry said, per Jim Wyatt of TennesseeTitans.com. “While I’m here, you just have to deal with it the best you can. It still hurts.
“I am still not over the fact that we lost, and we’re not here. It will replay in my head until we get back to football, which is going to be a while. But yeah, it still replays in my head every single day. I wanted (to win the Super Bowl) bad, and I know all of my teammates wanted it bad. Everybody was shocked when we lost. So that will be in my head until I am able to strap up again and play in a game.”
It’s easy to see why Henry is frustrated. While nobody likes being blown out, those losses at least come with the positive that you know the other team was just a lot better. You can’t look back at a single play and think that things would have been different if it went the other way. When you lose close, as the Titans did to the Bengals, that’s not the case.
Henry, playing in his first game in nearly three months, rushed for only 62 yards on 20 carries. Despite that and a poor performance from Ryan Tannehill, Tennessee had the ball in a tie game just short of midfield in the final minute of regulation. The Titans were one good play away from being in range for a game-winning field goal. Overtime felt like a worst case scenario.
Then, Tannehill’s game went from bad to worse. He threw his third interception. Joe Burrow found Ja’Marr Chase on a 19-yard completion to get Cincinnati in field goal range. Two plays later, Evan McPherson drilled a 52-yard field goal as time expired to send the No. 1 seeded Titans home.
There’s a lot to be dissected there. What if Henry had been better? What if Tannehill hadn’t thrown the interceptions? Even if he did, what would have happened if Tennessee didn’t allow the completion to Chase immediately after? We’ll never know.
But despite the tough loss, Henry doesn’t expect Tennessee’s loss to demoralize the team. Quite the opposite.
“It wasn’t how we wanted things to pan out,” he said, per Wyatt. “I know everybody on the team is mad about it, and we will all use it as motivation. I know I will. I have already started training, like I always do, but I am definitely ready and will be preparing for next year.”
The Titans were the top seed in the AFC in 2021, and they’ve won two straight AFC South titles and made the playoffs in each of the last three seasons, and four of the last five. But none of those trips yielded a Super Bowl appearance, and the last two have been one-and-dones, with both losses coming at home. So, Tennessee is close, but clearly has to improve its playoff performance to be playing in the Super Bowl next year.
