Despite hauling in a touchdown with zero seconds on the clock to take a lead into halftime, Stefon Diggs found himself talking junk in the locker room.
The main recipient was running back TreVeyon Henderson,
who was close to breaking a long touchdown run in the first quarter before being tripped up.
“I was talking mad junk to him at halftime,” Diggs said after the game. “I’m definitely hard on the TreVeyon, just because I see so much potential. One guy tackling him and stuff like that — I’ve been around some great backs in my career and I tell him those great backs don’t get tackled. I want to see you score.”
Henderson took the advice.
On the second play of scrimmage in the second half, the rookie bursted through the middle of the field and went 55 yards for a touchdown — hitting a max speed of over 22 miles per hour in the process.
With the Patriots then holding just a five point lead with less than two minutes to play, Henderson broke free again, this time down the left sideline for a 69-yard score to ice what finished as a 28-23 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“Him coming out there and busting two of them, it’s like good to be hard on people I guess,” Diggs said. “Proud of him. He’s finally scoring touchdowns. Finally running away from guys.”
Tying a career-high with 51 snaps as New England was without fellow running back Rhamondre Stevenson and lost backup Terrell Jennings (knee) early Sunday, Henderson became the first Patriots running back in franchise history to score two touchdowns over 50 yards. That led to him finishing the day with a season-high 147 rushing yards.
“It was hard, but something that I pray on is just embracing hardships, embracing challenges,” the back said. “To accept that it’s going to be hard. It’s not going to be easy. Once seeing Terrell go down, I knew I was going to have to carry a much bigger workload, so I thank God because I feel this week I’ve been pushing myself to just prepare for when those moments come.”
