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Derrick Henry keeps walking
Photo:
Wade Payne / AP
When the coin toss awarded the ball to the Tennessee Titans at the start of overtime, Deshaun Watson tossed his head angrily.
The Houston Texans quarterback already seemed to have an inkling of what was going to happen.
In an NFL extra time, the team that scores a touchdown first wins, as it were with the golden goal.
And with Derrick Henry, the Titans have a running back in their ranks that is almost unstoppable.
When his team won 42:36 (36:36, 21:10), Henry gained a total of 264 yards of space and two touchdowns.
An outstanding achievement, if not historic: The statistics also distinguish between running backs between balls taken over by the quarterback and caught and Henry caught five passes from his playmaker Ryan Tannehill.
264 yards would have been the eighth best running back run in any game in history.
An imaginary crown for Henry
After the game, Henry's teammates formed an imaginary crown with their hands and put it on their star player.
However, Tannehill also played a major role in the Titans making it into overtime at all.
At 364 yards, he threw four touchdowns;
the fourth only seven seconds before the end of regular time.
That it had to come to this was due to the also strong Texans offensive: Watson threw over 335 yards for four touchdowns.
Running back Will Fuller also showed a strong performance, having run 123 yards - not even half of Henry's mark.
The fact that the Texans lost was also due to the controversial overtime: For years, the touchdown rule in overtime, where a coin toss can decide the victory, has been controversial.
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The Titans celebrate their running back Derrick Henry
Photo: Wade Payne / AP
After the surprising entry into the AFC Championship Game, the Titans built on their strong performances, at the start of the season there were five wins with no defeat.
For Houston it is again the fifth defeat in just one win.
Mayfield goes down against Pittsburgh
In the top game of the AFC North division, the Pittsburgh Steelers won by veteran quarterback Ben Roethlisberger against the Cleveland Browns.
The Steelers beat the Browns 38: 7 (24: 7).
Both teams had recorded four wins before the game, the Browns also lost one more game.
Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield in particular played weakly after a strong past few weeks, he made two interceptions and was even replaced by substitute Case Keenum.
Wide receiver star Odell Beckham Junior only achieved two passes in the entire game.
Roethlisberger only threw for a touchdown and 162 yards, but had no loss of the ball.
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hba / dpa
