Bills defense tries to explain what went wrong vs. Titans, Derrick Henry

It’s easier said than done, but the Buffalo Bills knew they had to slow down Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry if they were going to have a chance in Week 6.

In the past, the Bills (4-2) had some successes against the All-Pro and rushing champion. That was not the case on Monday.

On 20 carries, Henry had 143 yards and three scores. They did not slow him down much.

In terms of trying to derail the big and bruising rusher, a couple Bills defenders put the blame on the unit as a whole. The plan was to stop Henry down before he got rolling down the field, which didn’t always happen.

“We let him out a few times,” Buffalo safety Micah Hyde via video conference. “When that happens, you watch it on film, you can watch all the games on film, and know once he gets through that front line, it’s hard to bring him down. He got through a few times. And from there, the guy is huge, guy is fast and you got to find a way to get him down.”

The biggest example of this from Henry was his 76-yard touchdown run. Right up the gut, Henry stormed down the field early in the second quarter to give the Titans their first lead of the game.

It’s unusual that such a play is truly one player’s fault, but safety Jordan Poyer said it was on him, even though it really wasn’t.

“I was in the gap, I just felt like I could have made the play. (Henry) ran right through the gap and I just got to make that play,” Poyer said.

Naturally, any run to the house like that is a problem for a defense. But as Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott explained it goes deeper than just that.

Such a rushing attack opens up the passing game. Specifically, play-action throws.

“Some of it, we were sucking up on the play action a little bit there with the play fake and it opens up the middle,” McDermott said. “That’s where they got their receivers. That’s what 22 (Henry) does to you. He makes you commit to the run.”

Unfortunately, now the Bills have to sit around and think of this one for awhile. There’s no get-right game in Week 7 for Buffalo, they have their bye week.

But Bills linebacker Tremaine Edmunds has confidence his team will respond when the time comes.

“They just out-executed us,” Edmunds said. “There’s really not more of a way to say it. They just came out and out-executed us, and we’ve got to be better.”

“I know the guys we’ve got in the room, nobody got their heads down,” Edmunds added. “I know that we’ll come back, bounce back and we’ll get better.”

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