Steelers' next challenge awaits in form of NFL's leading rusher, Derrick Henry

In one regards, the NFL didn’t do the Pittsburgh Steelers any favors by rescheduling their postponed game against the Tennessee Titans for Week 7.

The Steelers’ reward for controlling the NFL’s top rushing team is a matchup against the league’s top individual runner, the Titans’ Derrick Henry.

It could cause for mixed emotions for a Steelers defense that has proven its mettle time and again over the first five games only to have Henry dropped in their collective laps a week after he gouged the Houston Texans for 212 yards to emerge as the league’s top rusher.

Coach Mike Tomlin, though, is concerned with just one emotion entering his defense’s psyche as they prepare to slow down the proverbial wrecking ball that is the 6-foot-3, 247-pound Henry.

Fear.

“There are people that are intimidated by him,” Tomlin said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. “There are tangible things to be intimidated by.”

Not only is Henry the best of the NFL’s big backs, he has 4.5 speed to boot. As he showed against Houston – and repeatedly since the beginning of the 2018 season – he can run around, through or past any and all defensive players.

“This is like Bud Dupree running the football,” Tomlin said, referring to the Steelers’ 6-4, 267-pound outside linebacker. “This guy gets into your secondary. It’s like trying to tackle a guy like Bud, except he is faster, obviously, than Bud. You can see DBs have an issue with that.

“Hopefully, we can minimize the amount of time our guys get in those circumstances, and hopefully, when our guys are in those circumstances, they do what they have to do.”

The easiest way, of course, for the Steelers to keep Henry from reaching the third level of defense is by stopping him at the point of attack. That puts an emphasis on defensive linemen Cameron Heyward, Tyson Alualu and Stephon Tuitt to control the line of scrimmage and for linebackers Vince Williams and new starter Robert Spillane to plug the gaps.

Even then it might not be enough.

“The big man knows how to run the ball,” said Spillane, who spent part of the 2018 season with the Titans. “Derrick Henry is a physical specimen who requires 11 men on defense getting to the ball to bring him down.”

Armed with the No. 2 rush defense, the Steelers did a good enough job in the first quarter of the season to keep Saquon Barkley, Melvin Gordon, David Johnson and Miles Sanders in check. None of those backs approached 100 yards.

The Browns, minus starter Nick Chubb, entered Heinz Field as the NFL’s top rushing team. Kareem Hunt, a former rushing champion, was held to 40 yards on 13 carries and the Browns exited with 75 rushing yards – 113 below their season average – in the Steelers’ 38-7 win.

Henry, meanwhile, has exceeded 100 yards three times this year to take the NFL lead with 588 rushing yards. He also leads the NFL with 123 carries, an average of nearly 25 per game, which means the Titans aren’t afraid to keep feeding Henry the ball even if he starts slowly.

“Regardless of how the game is going, you better be prepared to answer that element of the challenge over the course of the game,” Tomlin said. “He wears you down. He’s capable, and they’re capable of winning by attrition.”

Henry essentially is picking up where he left off from last season when he exceeded 100 yards in five of the final six regular season games and led the NFL with 1,540 rushing yards, his second consecutive 1,000-yard season. In the playoffs, he put up 182 yards against New England and 195 against Baltimore to almost singlehandedly carry the Titans to the AFC championship game.

“It’s really astounding that a back his size is capable of going to the house just about every time he touches the ball,” Tomlin said. “Over the course of the last 10-12 games, dating back to last year, this guy has a highlight reel of big runs unlike which I have never seen over that type of time span.”

Henry’s game-breaking abilities were on full display against the Texans. He broke off a 94-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to give the Titans a 29-23 lead. In overtime, he took a pass 53 yards, which led to his game-winning 5-yard touchdown run on a direct snap.

“A lot is written and said about his size, his stiff arm, his power and those things,” Tomlin said. “All of those things are true. The damage that he does when he gets in open space, that he’s able to couple those attributes with sprinter’s speed is just ridiculous.”