Kansas City Chiefs forced Titans to get away from their game plan

Despite their run game being what got them to the AFC Championship Game, the Titans went away from that strategy even though they were still within striking distance. Kansas City Chiefs fans were fine with this.

All week long it was hard to ignore the buzz surrounding Derrick Henry and what he was able to do for the Tennessee Titans during their run to the AFC Championship Game. In two games against the Patriots and Ravens, he rushed for 377 yards with two total touchdowns and had essentially carried his team to the title game.

It was only fair for Kansas City Chiefs fans to be a little afraid of Henry because A) He had been wrecking havoc in the playoffs and B) He’s been in fans’ nightmares for years now after three dominant performances against KC.

It really appeared that Henry was going to get his in this game and the Chiefs would have to put up points and stay ahead of Tennessee.

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Well, when the Chiefs fell behind 10-0, it looked like the Titans would be able to lean on Henry throughout the game like they had been doing. He was doing well early on, rushing for 61 yards on 15 carries and finding the end zone on a direct snap to him.

When the second half kicked off, Tennessee was down by just four points and Kansas City failed to put the ball in the end zone on their first possession. That gave the Titans a chance to try and take control of the game and they tried to get Henry the ball. He was given four carries on their first possession of the half and the final two saw him get stuffed on a 2nd and 1 and again on a 3rd and 1.

Those would be the final carries Henry would see in the game.

The next time the Titans got the ball, they were trailing by 11 and must have started to feel the pressure mounting because they didn’t give Henry a single carry on their next possession. As a result, they ran just five plays before they were forced to punt the ball away.

By the time the Titans got the ball again, they were down by 18 points and then it made sense to get away from Henry, but why they didn’t give him a few carries on the previous drive was baffling. The game was still competitive by that point, but Tennessee got away from what made that team great.

The Kansas City Chiefs were able to force the Titans to get away from their game plan by putting up points on every drive and in the end, that’s where the game changed in the second half. It was close in the first half and Henry’s 61 yards showed that he was effective early in the game, but when the Chiefs pulled away, Tennessee knew Henry couldn’t be the guy to get them the victory.

That was what Kansas City had to do in order to win this game; They had to put up points and force the Titans to air things out more. They had to put the game in Ryan Tannehill‘s hands and that’s exactly what happened. Tannehill had over 200 yards passing to go along with two touchdowns, but he didn’t have what it took to win the game for the Titans, especially when the Chiefs knew he’d be throwing on just about every play.

Frank Clark talked a lot of smack heading into this game and he got the last laugh. Hopefully he and the rest of his defensive guys are ready to put up a similar performance against the 49ers in less than two weeks because those running backs in San Francisco are for real.

The Niners relied on their run game to get them to the Super Bowl, so if the Chiefs can put up points and force them to put the game in Jimmy Garoppolo‘s hands, they’ll have a great chance at winning and being Super Bowl champions.