Derrick Henry will be running with some extra motivation when the Baltimore Ravens host the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.
Browns safety Grant Delpit was asked about the challenge of taking down Henry, who averaged nearly 10 yards per carry in Week 1.
“Not hard,” Delpit said. The Browns’ social media team leaned into the comment, posting a clip of Delpit leveling Henry in last year’s matchup.
Word spread quickly, and Henry didn’t let the remark slide.
“Yeah, I saw that,” Henry said. “His coach had a quote. He had a quote. We’ll see on Sunday.”
It’s unclear which coach Henry was referencing. Cleveland defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz had only praise for Baltimore’s ground attack.
“They’re the best run team in the NFL, and that’s Derrick Henry, but also Lamar Jackson with the scrambles and design quarterback runs,” Schwartz said on Thursday. “We’re going to have to do a good job on his scrambles; we’re going to have to tackle some of their playmakers, particularly Zay Flowers. They get him the ball a lot of different ways. If we do those things, regardless of what happened last week, if we do those things, we’ll set ourselves up for success on Sunday.”
Browns Defense Coming Off Strong Outing Despite Loss
The Browns had a chance to win in Week 1 against the Cincinnati Bengals, thanks in large part to their defense. Cleveland held the Bengals to just seven net yards of offense in the second half and 141 in the game. The Browns still ended up losing, 17-16.
Schwartz has a high standard for his defense and believes they could have played better, particularly early.
“I thought we left a lot of plays out there. We certainly weren’t happy with the first drive of the game. We keep track of, not only different stats in the game, but whether you want a snap or lost a snap,” Schwartz said. “A lot of different things go into it. But of those 14 snaps, we only won like two of the first 14. After that, we played really, really well. But it doesn’t erase that first drive. So, we need to get off to a faster start, and I think that’s probably the big thing.”
The Ravens will be hungry to pile up yards and points. They’re coming off a crushing 41-40 loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 1. Baltimore piled up 432 yards of offense, including 238 yards on the ground — the most in the NFL last week.
Browns Feel Disrespected by Lopsided Spread
The Browns are a double-digit underdog against the Ravens for the Week 2 matchup. Prominent Cleveland players have expressed that they feel it’s disrespectful to be viewed as such significant underdogs.
“Yeah, it is definitely disrespect, but we just have to go in there and take care of business regardless of what people may think and who they’ve got winning or losing the game,” Browns Pro Bowl cornerback Denzel Ward said. “We have to go in and try to beat the odds. They put us against the odds, we’ve we got to go in there and try to beat it.”
The sides have split the last six games in the series, dating back to 2022. The Browns finished last season 3-14. But one of those wins came against the Ravens.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Ravens Star Derrick Henry Sends Message to Browns After Bold Trash Talk appeared first on Heavy Sports.