NASHVILLE – Derrick Henry on Sunday will return to the scene of where his 2021 season took an unfortunate pause.
A year later, the Titans running back feels good as new.
And as he prepares to face the Colts, Henry has hardly paused to think about what happened in Indianapolis last year.
"My foot is fine," Henry said on Thursday. "I'm good."
What went through his mind as he left Indianapolis a year ago, with months of rehab on the horizon?
"One foot felt different that the other," Henry said with a smile, "and I wanted to figure out what was going on."
Last season, Henry broke a bone in his right foot in the team's October 31 game against the Colts in Indianapolis.
Henry ended up missing the second half of the 2021 regular season with the injury after being placed on Injured Reserve. Henry finished the 2021 season with 937 yards and 10 touchdowns in eight regular season games. When he returned for the team's playoff game against the Bengals, Henry ran for 62 yards and a touchdown.
Henry is coming off his best performance of the 2022 season.
Against the Raiders, Henry ran for 85 yards and a touchdown on 20 rushing attempts, and he also added a team-high five catches for 58 yards, giving him a team-best 143 all-purpose yards. His reception total was the second best of his career, and his receiving total ranked third best in his career.
"I think you want to build off the positives and correct the things we know that we need to get better at," Henry said. "We need a heavy emphasis on that until Sunday comes, and then go out there and execute."
The Titans will likely need another good performance on Sunday.
Recent history has been good for Henry against the Colts – he has 100-plus rushing yards in four of his past five games vs Indianapolis, and he has 441 rushing yards (110.3 per game) and four rushing touchdowns in his past four games at Lucas Oil Stadium.
"They always play hard, fast, physical, disruptive," Henry said. "They've always been the same since I've been playing them. … They have been good on run defense, and we know it has always been a challenge. We have to get our minds right for Sunday."
