Who Won The NFL Weekend? Jay Ajayi, Who Has Suddenly Turned Into A Record-Breaking Superhero

The Miami Dolphins are a tough team to figure out. When they were losing four of their first five games, with the only win coming in overtime against the hapless Browns, they looked like one of the very worst teams in football. Now, they’ve knocked off a tough and experienced Pittsburgh Steelers team and came back to beat the surging Buffalo Bills on Sunday, 28-25.

All the players are largely the same for Miami as they’ve been all season; the only major difference is that running back Jay Ajayi somehow turned into a superhero.

Ajayi ran for 214 yards on 28 carries, the second straight game in which he’s broken the 200-yard barrier. That double has only been done by three other running backs, all of whom were generational talents — Earl Campbell, O.J. Simpson and Ricky Williams. To have Ajayi join that exclusive club is a shocker, considering he’s a second-year player who was drafted in the fifth round and was supposed to be supplanted by free agent pickup Arian Foster.

Foster got hurt earlier in the season, and with a new shot at the starting lineup, Ajayi has looked like a completely different player than the replacement-level plodder from a season ago. Before this game, he was already leading the league in yards per carry, and he’ll stretch that lead heading into Week 8. But is it enough to redeem Miami’s season?

At 3-4, the Dolphins aren’t dead by any stretch of the imagination. Then again, they do share a division with the New England Patriots, who seem to be the best team in the NFL as the season approaches its halfway mark. But the wild card spots are there for the taking, if the Dolphins can sustain what’s worked over the last two games.

When an offense goes from its quarterback constantly running for his life, like Ryan Tannehill was forced to do for the first few weeks, to its running back plowing for chunk gains, the offensive line is a good place to look for signs of a turnaround, and the Dolphins’ big guys have been opening up some holes.

The Dolphins were the beneficiary of Laremy Tunsil’s bong-related fall in the draft, and he’s been solid at left guard. But as you can see from PFF’s chart above, Ja’Waun James was the standout on Sunday. A good offensive line can take a team farther than perhaps any other unit in football, and if they’re better at run blocking than pass blocking, it’s incumbent upon the coaching staff to play to the team’s strengths. If they can keep and move the football behind Ajayi and their line, it will make their defense look better too. Who knows how far they could go?

Other Week 8 Winners

A.J. Green: What more can we say about the catch of the year? Green is an uncoverable monster, perhaps the greatest jump ball artist in the game today. He caught 8 passes for 169 yards and that hail mary score — you know what? Let’s just watch it again, because it’s going to tell you far more about just how great Green is than we could.

And in case you’re wondering why he didn’t get the top spot, remember that you don’t win the week for beating the Browns. At this point, it’s the closest thing to a founding principle this column has.

Denzel Perryman: The Chargers have played in a close game in every week but one this season (a blowout win over the Jaguars), and for a while there they kept losing in spectacularly awful ways — giving up a classic Drew Brees comeback one week, then losing on a botched routine field goal attempt a week later. It’s been gut-wrenching stuff, and it’s left San Diego with a worse record they deserve. Well, they were in another close one against the Atlanta Falcons this week, but this time, linebacker Perryman wouldn’t let them choke it away. He intercepted Matt Ryan in the fourth quarter to set up a game-tying field goal, then made the key stop on a fourth down play in overtime:

From there, the Chargers kicked a field goal and won a game they had to have, as they still sit at 3-4 and in last place in the AFC West. Perryman and the defense are banged up (he’s still nursing a shoulder injury), but Philip Rivers and Melvin Gordon have the Chargers’ offense humming. If some breaks finally start going their way, they have just as much a shot at a wild card berth as the Dolphins — and on paper, they’re a better team.

LeGarrette Blount: Remember who we called the best team in football? They’re more than just Tom Brady, as they proved by going 3-1 with their star QB suspended. They also have one of the best defenses in football, but it’s time to give LeGarrette Blount the credit he deserves. He’s fifth in the NFL in rushing yards, and every time the Patriots have needed to play a run-dominant offensive style, Blount has been the hammer they’ve needed. He’s only broken 1,000 yards in a season once, in his rookie year with Tampa Bay, but in 2013 and 2014 he scored seven touchdowns over just five playoff games. His usage rate might tail off as Brady gets further into the swing of things, but come playoff time, Blount will be a force to be reckoned with once again.