Helter Skelter » Derrick Henry has patiently waited for his chance

NASHVILLE Phil Haynes Jersey , Tenn. (AP)to shine and now heading into his third NFL season the 2015 Heisman Trophy winner will have his chance.Henry isn’t sharing any specific goals for yards or touchdowns, but the Tennessee Titans running back made one thing clear: He is looking forward to a big season.”I definitely want to be dominant this year,” Henry said, adding that he plans to make the most of any opportunities he gets. The former Alabama standout said he just wants to ”make plays for this offense, be a consistent back. Make plays any chance that I’m in there and just do what I’m asked.”And above all else, Henry wants to ”help this team win games.”The soft-spoken Henry gave a glimpse of just what he could do in the NFL in the Titans’ comeback victory in Kansas City , running for 156 yards for the second-best playoff performance in franchise history.But Henry doesn’t define being dominant by putting up big numbers.Henry’s definition is ”having a great game every game and have an impact every game at my position. …. How I make plays and what I do throughout the game to help this team win.”There were questions why general manager Jon Robinson used his third pick in the second round in 2016 to select Henry only weeks after trading for DeMarco Murray , the 2014 NFL Offensive Player of the Year. Turned out to be a good move; the Titans cut Murray in March after his production dropped last season.They also signed Dion Lewis to join Henry in the backfield, but the 6-foot-3, 247-pound Henry led the Titans with 744 yards rushing last season despite starting only two games and getting eight fewer carries than Murray.”Dions’ a great guy, and we’ve been getting along very well,” Henry said. ”Very excited to have a tandem together.”The Titans aren’t saying who will start at running back. Tennessee plays Aug. 9 at Green Bay the regular season opener is Sept. 9 at Miami.Lewis was signed for his skills catching passes out of the backfield to fit the new offense being installed by coordinator Matt LaFleur. Henry didn’t have as much of a chance to showcase his hands in college with just 17 catches, but he did have 35 yards receiving in last year’s wild-card game in Kansas City.That helped Henry set a franchise-record in the postseason with 191 yards from scrimmage, topping the mark of 178 yards set by Billy Cannon on Jan. 1 Ugo Amadi Jersey , 1961, in the AFL.First-year head coach Mike Vrabel said everyone is working for a starting job.”As we continue to work through the offense and through the plays and the complimentary type of football that we want to run, some of those things will sort themselves out. The plays that we like with Dion and the plays that we like with Derrick are going to start to emerge,” Vrabel said.One thing’s for sure: LaFleur’s offense will be leaning on outside zone runs, and that should play into Henry’s strength. That’s what he ran in college at Alabama where he became the Crimson Tide’s all-time leading rusher with 3,591 yards and 42 TDs rushing.”I like it a lot,” Henry said of the offensive scheme.NOTES: Safety Johnathan Cyprien walked off the field Wednesday with trainers after apparently hurting his left knee. … Vrabel said CB Malcolm Butler and DL Jurrell Casey had the day off to help them with a couple issues hoping they return Thursday. Vrabel said rookie LB Rashaan Evans, the No. 22 pick overall, is day to day with an unspecified injury. … The Titans placed OT John Theus on the reserve/retired list.— MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — When Kirk Cousins and his family moved from Illinois to Michigan, his allegiance to the Bears was well-established.Leaving Chicagoland, Cousins wondered aloud to his dad whether they’d be required to become fans of the Lions and the other Detroit-area teams.“He said, ‘Kirk, you can take the boy out of Chicago. You can’t take Chicago out of the boy,'” Cousins recalled this week.Loyal to the Bears they remained Dwayne Haskins Jersey , but inside Michigan’s borders the Lions always received top TV billing. So Cousins moved through his teenage years and on to college at Michigan State with more than adequate coverage of the Lions, a clear familiarity that has only deepened now that Cousins has joined a different team in the NFC North in Minnesota.The Vikings (4-3-1) will host the Lions (3-4) on Sunday, the first time Cousins, who’s second in the NFL with 2,521 passing yards, will face his home state’s squad as a division rival.“I think with every game we play, I can point to something about the team or an opponent on the team or a coach or whatever it might be that makes you feel like you’re living a dream,” Cousins said, “and certainly going against the Detroit Lions is no different being that I grew up in that state.”With the Bears (4-3) and Green Bay Packers (3-3-1) bunched in, too, this game will be the first of several in the second half of the season to shape a tight race.“Division games count for two,” Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford said. “You get the win, and they get the loss. They’re big games, and the more you can go and win those D.K. Metcalf Jersey , whether on the road or at your place, the better. We have a big stretch of them coming up.”Here are some other key angles to follow with the game:MATCHING MEGATRONAdam Thielen leads the NFL with 74 receptions and 925 yards for the Vikings. With at least 100 yards in each of the first eight games, Thielen has tied Lions legend Calvin Johnson for the longest streak in league history. Johnson’s run was in 2012, when he set the all-time NFL record with 1,964 yards.As a football-loving kid living in Minnesota, Thielen naturally tried to emulate Cris Carter and Randy Moss. But Johnson was another star wide receiver he closely watched. Johnson, who retired after the 2015 season, wore No. 21 in college at Georgia Tech. So did Thielen at Detroit Lakes High School, not coincidentally.“He could block, he could run short routes, he could run deep routes, and he’d catch everything,” Thielen said. “When people were draped all over him, he’d still make the plays. I just remember a lot of games where Stafford would just throw the ball up http://www.seahawksauthorizedshops.com/authentic-cody-barton-jersey , and there’d be three guys on him and he’d still come down with the ball.”With Stefon Diggs another dangerous option for Cousins, limiting Thielen has been even more of a challenge for opponents.“We’re going to have a hard time trying to handle him,” coach Matt Patricia said. “He runs really good routes. He has great change of direction. He can get vertically very quick. He understands zone coverage — he can sit down and find the open space — and he has great hands. So definitely will be a big issue for us.”GOLDEN’S GONEThough Johnson caused the Vikings secondary plenty of problems over his nine years in the league, Golden Tate did his share of damage, too.In the first four wins by the Lions over the Vikings since Zimmer was hired in 2014, twice in his first year and twice in 2016, Tate totaled 228 yards and two touchdowns on 30 catches while being targeted 38 times. That included his game-winning somersault into the end zone in overtime in Minnesota in 2016, after Vikings standouts Xavier Rhodes and Harrison Smith missed their attempts to tackle him.Last season, the Vikings limited Tate to just seven receptions for 36 yards over their two matchups. Now he’s gone, having been traded to Philadelphia .“I was surprised about that. He was their main guy on third downs. He was great with yards after the catch,” Rhodes said, adding: “It was one of those situations where you were like, ‘Oh, let me check MY phone.'”GRIFFEN GETTING GOINGVikings defensive end Everson Griffen Gary Jennings Jr. Jersey , who has 7½ sacks in eight games against the Lions since becoming a starter in 2014, made his season debut last week after missing five games to seek mental health treatment. Griffen played 37 of 53 snaps against New Orleans.“My No. 1 goal is just to keep on going out there and knocking the rust off more and more each day, but I’m feeling good,” Griffen said.GAME ON THE GROUNDAfter finishing last, third-to-last and last in the NFL in rushing over the previous three years, the Lions have revived their long-languishing ground game with the arrival of rookie Kerryon Johnson. With an average of nearly 110 yards per game, they’re 16th in the league this week.“It’s mostly what the offensive line’s doing. No matter how good a running back is, he needs the offensive line, period,” Vikings defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson said. “Ain’t too many Barry Sanders in the league.”