On Wednesday, in the middle of preparations for Saturday’s playoff opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Ravens fullback Patrick Ricard stood near his locker and took a pop quiz on a subject of some expertise.

Derrick Henry leads the NFL with 16 rushing touchdowns. How many have you been on the field for?

Ricard looked down in concentration. “I’d probably say 14 or 13 of them,” he answered. Nope. Fifteen scores, he was told. All but the last one. “All but the last one? Oh, yeah. That’s true. Damn, only one of them?” Then he did what every run defender must have felt compelled to do against the Ravens at some point this season: He shook his head and said, “That’s crazy.”

Henry’s arrival in Baltimore has been the stuff of fantasy. Along with producing one of football’s most blissful marriages — Henry’s thunder and quarterback Lamar Jackson’s lightning, united in one unholy backfield — it’s inspired a profound bond between a Pro Bowl running back and his chief escort.

When Ricard was named to his fifth Pro Bowl last week, one of an NFL-high nine Ravens honored, Henry highlighted Ricard on his Instagram story. Ricard calls it a “dream” to block for a “beast” like Henry; Henry calls Ricard an “unsung hero,” a “juggernaut.” Apart, they were two of the NFL’s most intimidating physical presences. Together, they make up one of this postseason’s most fascinating physics problems: How many teams can stop almost 550 pounds of full-steam-ahead power?

“That tandem is one of a kind,” tight end Mark Andrews said. “It’s two absolute beasts running the ball, and one guy paving the way. So when you have two guys like that, it makes for a dangerous, dangerous tandem.”

Their strength is almost undeniable. The 247-pound Henry and 300-pound Ricard have shared the field on only 329 offensive plays this season, according to TruMedia, less than a third of the Ravens’ total workload (1,055 plays). Defenses know what their presence suggests; all but 23 of those Henry-Ricard plays have been a run call or a play-action pass.

Opponents just can’t stop it. With Ricard on the field, Henry rushed for nearly as many yards (1,324 yards) and first downs (68) as the Las Vegas Raiders did in the 2024 regular season. He rushed for more touchdowns (15) than 14 teams. And he rushed for more yards per carry (6.2) than every team; only two rushing attacks outside Baltimore came within even a yard of Henry’s seasonlong average on Ricard-aided carries.

“To go out there and mash people out the way for me every single game, especially in the cold … [it] is not easy,” said Henry, whose rushing average without Ricard is nearly a yard less (5.4). “I’ve got a ton of respect for Pat being his teammate, [and even] when I wasn’t. I’m happy that I’m finally his teammate. He’s blocking for me, and he’s doing a hell of a job this season. He deserves all of the recognition.”

Ricard was under no delusions as to why Henry signed with the Ravens last offseason: “He came here to play with Lamar. Let’s be real.” But he was delighted to at least be considered a fringe benefit in Henry’s free-agent move after eight seasons with the Tennessee Titans.

In late March, two weeks after agreeing to a two-year, $16 million deal, Henry had gone on “The Pivot” podcast and rattled off the pieces he was excited to join in Baltimore: Jackson, Andrews, wide receiver Zay Flowers, a “solid” offensive line. “And then 4-2,” Henry added, referring to Ricard’s jersey number. “Big Pat.” He grinned wide. “We had him on film. We highlighted him. ... I’m excited to be playing with him as well. He’s a beast.”

Ricard, who’d gotten to know Henry through their Pro Bowl appearances, saw the clip. “I just thought it was the coolest thing in the world, because we’d only talked here and there a little bit.”

Over offseason workouts, preseason practices and early-season games, Ricard came to understand how Henry liked to run: almost unwaveringly fast. This was heavy-metal football. In Ricard’s first seven seasons in Baltimore, he’d never been knocked to his knees by the stiff arm of a teammate running behind and then over him. That changed early in his first training camp with Henry, who rarely followed a fullback in the Titans’ offense.

“As soon as he gets the ball in the backfield, he is trying to go top speed as fast as he can,” Ricard said. “I know that I can’t slow down at all, and I have to get on my guy as fast as I can and move him as fast as I can, because, if I don’t, he’s going to run into me or he’s going to stiff-arm my back to move me out of the way.”

The risks are obvious — tight end Charlie Kolar broke his forearm after Henry ran into him in the Ravens’ Week 12 win over the Los Angeles Chargers — but so are the rewards. When Ricard and Henry line up in the same backfield, linebackers typically trigger downhill quickly, hoping to keep Henry from building up steam as he reaches the line of scrimmage. Ricard’s goal is to beat them to the hole.

He usually does. With the help of an improved offensive line and creative play-calling from coordinator Todd Monken, Henry is averaging an elite 2.63 yards before contact this season on carries with Ricard on the field — more than three times what he averaged in Tennessee last season (0.85 yards), according to TruMedia.

The duo’s dynamism is perhaps most evident on under-center runs, which negate some of Jackson’s gravitational pull on defenses. In the old-school I formation, according to Sports Info Solutions, Henry is averaging 6.5 yards and 0.20 expected points added per carry — close to the efficiency of a typical Joe Burrow drop-back. In the offset I formation, when Ricard’s shaded to one side of the line instead of aligned behind the quarterback, Henry’s averaging 6.8 yards and 0.37 EPA per carry — even more efficient than a typical Jackson drop-back.

“Pat’s so good,” Kolar said. “He’s not just like an O-lineman. He also runs pretty well. He moves. He’s fluid through his hips on contact. He’s a pretty incredible athlete. I think he’s one of those guys that people who watch football for fun don’t always see, you know? But, if you’re watching in detail, what Pat does is so crucial for our offense; it’s unbelievable. Most tight ends can’t get in the backfield and read-block and stuff, and then most fullbacks can’t get on the line of scrimmage and wide-zone-block.

“His ability to do both those things is unbelievable, and it’s why [people say], ‘Oh, Pat’s in the game. They’ll probably run the ball.’ But you don’t know where the run is going to be or what Pat’s going to do or if he’s going to catch. That’s why Pat is so good at what he does; he’s able to keep the defense honest. And obviously Derrick, it’s kind of unbelievable sometimes. If he gets, like, four steps in the ground, he looks like he’s going to house it every time. He’s so good.”

As the Ravens’ league-best rushing attack has bloomed, so has Henry and Ricard’s mutual admiration. They talk ball regularly, as the demands of the position dictate — “It’s a weird chemistry,” Ricard said of the typical fullback-running back relationship, “because you have to play off of each other” — but have found common ground besides just running over people. They were both born in 1994, just four months apart. They’re both girl dads. They’re both reserved, humble players. And they both “just try to have as much fun as we can,” Ricard said.

It can be a long season, after all. The Ravens opened training camp in Owings Mills on July 21. They hope to be playing in New Orleans on Feb. 9. The little things in a locker room matter. Henry’s “juggernaut” nickname brings a smile to Ricard’s face. So do Henry’s lip-synching sessions in the weight room and training room, where he’ll approach Ricard and recite line after line of rap songs that Ricard, admittedly, has never heard.

“A guy like him, he doesn’t have to give a shit about anybody,” Ricard said. “He can just be like, ‘I’m Derrick Henry. I’m the best running back in the world. Give me the ball every play.’ But he’s not like that at all. It’s very much like Lamar. You know, Lamar could be a complete prick asshole, but he’s not at all. And that’s what I appreciate about both of them.”

The question looming over Ricard is how much longer their backfield partnership might last. Henry, 31, is under contract through 2025 and, after finishing second in the NFL in rushing yards this season (1,921), seems likely to stick around.

Ricard, however, is in the final year of his deal. Saturday’s game could be his last in Baltimore. He joked Wednesday about needing to get signatures from Henry, Jackson and other Ravens teammates for the photo print he has stashed in his locker. It’s a wide-angle-lens shot of Henry’s most iconic touchdown this season, the first steps of his 87-yard sprint in a Week 4 blowout win over the Buffalo Bills. There are eight other Ravens in the image. The teammate closest to Henry is Ricard.

“I think he’s the best running back in this league,” Ricard said. “I would love to play as long as I can with him. But I don’t think it really matters about him. This is my only team my whole career, so regardless of who’s here, I’d want to stay here and retire here. So that’s something we’ll have to figure out when the time comes, but obviously, right now, I’m just trying to keep winning these playoff games and try to get a Super Bowl to Baltimore.”