NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- From 2019 to 2021, the run game was the key to success for the Tennessee Titans' playoff runs. The run game was their identity.
Tennessee ranked in the top five in rushing, and Derrick Henry was one of the most feared offensive weapons in the game. Henry's 2,027 rushing yards in 2020 ranks fifth in league history for a single regular season.
The Titans set the tone with their physical rushing attack.
Tennessee didn't make the playoffs the next two years before Henry signed with the Baltimore Ravens in 2024, but Henry still racked up 2,705 in his final two seasons -- the most in that span.
The post-Henry Titans have a 4-23 record over the past two seasons and lack a clear identity -- while Henry had the 11th best season in history with 1,921 yards in 2024 and outrushed the Titans as a team (1,855 yards).
Entering Week 12, Tennessee (1-9) has the worst record in the NFL and is averaging 78.9 yards per game -- dead last in the league. Rookie quarterback Cam Ward had no hesitation when asked what should define this team.
"I just think what our identity has to be, not only now but for the future, is physicality," Ward said.
There's no better way to set a physical tone offensively than by running the ball.
The Titans invested in the trenches under former general manager Ran Carthon, who used the 11th overall pick in 2023 to select left guard Peter Skoronski, followed by selecting right tackle JC Latham with the seventh pick in 2024. Carthon also signed center Lloyd Cushenberry III to a four-year, $50 million contract in 2024.
Last year's team finished 18th in rushing (averaging 109.1 yards per game), but as noted above, things got worse this season -- even though new general manager Mike Borgonzi added veteran free agents in left tackle Dan Moore Jr. (four years, $82 million) and right guard Kevin Zeitler (one year, $9 million).
Cushenberry takes the lack of success with the run game personally.
"Everything in the run game starts with us up front," Cushenberry said. "We haven't been doing our job."
Latham has seven penalties (four false starts, three holding) this season, tying him with four other offensive linemen for the third most in the league. Some of those penalties have wiped out what would traditionally be a down-and-distance that's more conducive to running the ball effectively.
"There'll be times where we're running the ball pretty good and efficiently, and we get behind the eight-ball," Latham said. "One play can deter you. In my case, where I have the penalty, what you gonna call on second-and-15 to get back on track?"
Tennessee brought in running back Tony Pollard to help replace Henry's rushing production, and his 1,079 rushing yards (on 260 carries) last season ranked 12th in the NFL. Still, it's nowhere near the kind of impact Henry had when he led the league in rushing in 2019 and 2020 and had a league-best 937 rushing yards in 2021 before suffering a broken foot in Week 8.
Pollard's average per carry dipped from 4.2 yards per carry in 2024 to 3.9 this season, and he's only gained 502 yards in 10 games. He echoed Latham's assessment of the run struggles.
"A lot of it is self inflicted things, getting behind the sticks," Pollard said. "Sometimes we're getting in predictable game situations. We'll have a good call for first-and-10, then we'll get a false start, go with the same call and it's not as effective in a first-and-15. We just have to be on the same page."
The Titans were hoping to split carries between Tyjae Spears and Pollard, but Spears went on injured reserve before the start of the season and missed the first four games. Getting back a piece that's a big part of what you would wanted to do should provide a spark in theory, but the rushing yards have regressed from the first four weeks, where they averaged 87 yards per game.
Having an effective ground game is one of the best ways to assist a quarterback, especially a rookie in his transition to the NFL. The Titans have found some success on play-action with Ward, but it's nothing like the success that quarterback Ryan Tannehill had from 2019 to 2021 with Henry in the backfield.
"A solid run game helps the quarterback a lot looks-wise -- whether it's play-action, bootleg -- the defense is going to sink back a lot," Ward said.
Ward is right. Linebackers tend to read run first, causing them to step towards the line of scrimmage. That tendency is heightened when teams are able to pose a bigger threat running the ball and opens up clear passing lanes off of run fakes.
A running back hasn't gone over 100 rushing yards in a game this season for Tennessee, but Pollard did so three times in 2024. By comparison, Henry did so 21 times in 39 games from 2019 to 2021 -- including four 200-yard rushing outbursts.
The blame doesn't solely fall on Pollard. It's a collective effort.
Interim head coach Mike McCoy couldn't put a finger on a specific reason why the Titans haven't been able to run the ball. McCoy said the reasons vary from week to week because of the different fronts they face on defense.
"Is it a track of a back?" McCoy said. "Did he cut? Did he not press the line of scrimmage too much? Did he cut too fast? Was there a missed block? Sometimes someone trips. I've had a lineman come back to me and say, 'Run it again. I tripped!'
"So, there are a number of things. It could be a receiver not going and blocking a down safety or a nickel off the edge."
According to Skoronski, there have also been issues where the rushing attack encounters early run stuffs that at times seem to cause hesitance in going back to the run game.
"We've got to build confidence in terms of getting those early runs going so we feel like we can go back to those that kind of just snowballs and spirals into a productive running day," Skoronski said. "If you're getting stuffed earlier, it's hard to go back to that."
The Titans have faced four of the top five run defenses in the league this season, and they'll face the No. 6 ranked run defense when the Seattle Seahawks (7-3) come to Nissan Stadium on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, Fox).
Regardless of Seattle's ranking, Pollard feels Tennessee can find success on the ground.
"If we play our best game and don't beat ourselves, it doesn't matter who we're going against," Pollard said. "We're going to be a productive offense."