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."
It was another feast and famine game for Henry. He ran over the Patriots for much of the night, including a 21-yard touchdown run in the first quarter that kicked things off right. But he followed that up with a fumble on the Ravens' second drive, as they moved into scoring range and looked to be off to the races.
The Patriots recovered and marched back down the field for a touchdown of their own. From that point on, it was a dogfight.
Henry now has four fumbles this season – the most he's had in a single season since 2022. He had a fumble in each of the Ravens' first three games this season but hadn't put one on the ground until Sunday night in a critical game.
"It's just really embarrassing," Henry said. "I feel like some of that momentum that we had in that drive – I feel like we would have scored, and that would have given us seven [points] – so I took seven points away. And I feel like I took a little bit of momentum from the team and the defense, and they went on a long drive and scored, and it's just been disappointing, kind of like this whole year."
