“Scary!” - Rich Reacts to the Ravens Rolling the Colts in Jesse Minter’s Baltimore HC Debut

Jesse Minter's first game as Baltimore's head coach ended with 511 yards of offense, a Colts team that never really got close, and a running back who has apparently decided that turning 30 was somebody else's problem.

Derrick Henry ran for 144 yards and three touchdowns. The Ravens were up 31-16 and he kept going, which is the part that got the room.

"Honestly, he kept on running it and running it and running it," Rich said. "He's just scary just to see still photographs of."

Then came the numbers, and they are the kind that reframe a career in real time. If Henry puts up 1,500 plus yards again this season, the way he did last year, he finishes the year as the sixth leading rusher in NFL history. On the all-time rushing touchdown list, only LaDainian Tomlinson and Emmitt Smith are still ahead of him. Two more next week passes Tomlinson. Smith sits at 164. Henry is at 144.

"He's passing him in touchdowns, bro. Maybe this year."

The morning conversation had been about a Mount Rushmore of running backs and where Henry belongs on a top 10 list. The first answer was no, he is not a top 10 running back. That answer did not survive the actual list-making. Rich was ready to go higher and saved the case for another day, though he did take the victory lap he earned years ago.

"I'm so pleased to say that years ago I said he's a Pro Football Hall of Famer before anybody else was."

That call landed about four years ago, and the response at the desk at the time was some version of not yet. It is not a debate anymore.

There was a Jonathan Taylor note too, and it curved right back to the same guy. Taylor logged his 17th career game with two or more rushing touchdowns, tied for the second most since 2020. The leader in that category, with 25, is Henry.

Lamar Jackson was the other half of it. He threw for 324 yards with a passing touchdown and added one on the ground, his highest passing total in a game in two seasons. There was also the play where the defense converged on him, he ducked between two defenders, spun out and ran, which the show filed under the category of noises people make out loud when they watch football.

"How did they not sack him?"

The one piece of bad news was Zay Flowers, who had 150 yards before a soft tissue injury. Adam Schefter has him unlikely for Week 2.

The bigger question is what this does to the division. Rich picked the Bengals to win it. He is not pretending that call aged well after one Sunday.

"Ravens could absolutely win it," he said.

Baltimore is already the betting favorite to win the AFC, which surprised nobody on the show. The home opener against New Orleans is next, with Tyler Shough facing this defense, and Rich does not expect anyone to look past it.

"Well done. Great first game for Jesse Minter."

There is still the question of how the offense settles in under new coordinator Declan Doyle. Based on the opener, that is not an urgent one.

As for the guy everyone keeps circling back to, Rich has a theory about the hill that 30 year old running backs are supposed to go over. Henry looks like he is training on it, then daring anyone half his age to keep up.

Someone at the show saw him arrive at the stadium in street clothes and had the only reaction available.

"This guy's a mountain."