Perfect72
It's Only Happened ONCE!
Jay Ajayi vaulted himself into elite company with a pair of 200-yard rushing games, placing his name among some of the best running backs in NFL history, but that has yet to translate to off-field fame.
He’s been recognized in public occasionally in South Florida over the past three weeks, and a recent bye week trip to New York, he noticed little had changed in terms of his anonymity.
“I think maybe like a couple people at the hotel — maybe,” he said when asked if he made it through his travels without any fanfare. “But I’m still just me, I guess.”
It’s a pretty good time to be just Ajayi. After starting the season adrift on the Dolphins’ depth chart, he’s locked in his position as their premiere running back, climbed to the top 10 in the league in rushing and gets a chance against the Jets on Sunday (1 p.m., CBS) to become the first player ever to run for 200 or more yards in three consecutive games.
“I know in the NFL it’s hard to get 100 yards, so for us to get back-to-back 200-yard games is a credit to the hard work that we’ve all put in — the o-line, the receivers, myself,” he said. “If it does happen again, that’s going to be an amazing thing, an incredible thing.”
Ajayi never cracked 50 yards until rolling up 204 on the Steelers and is suddenly more than halfway toward a 1,000-yard season. It’s been a fascinating emergence for someone who’s biography was already pretty full at 23 years old — he was born in England to Nigerian parents before living in Maryland, Texas and Idaho — but in a way this seems completely ordinary to him.
He knows the 200-yard mark is an elusive target for any running back and he’s not claiming it was easy. That said, he doesn’t view it as a fluke, either.
“I know it’s not logical to say you can rush for 200 yards every game,” he said. “But if our run game is as dominant as it has been these past couple of weeks and if we can just keep playing like that … I think we’ll be all right.”
Keeping this, or anything close to it, going against the Jets will be tough. New York is No. 1 in the league in run defense and last against the pass, creating an obvious opening for Miami to air it out. Adam Gase hinted after Wednesday’s practice that he’s inclined to stick with what’s been working, but also added, “you do what’s best for that game.”
His trust in Ajayi has grown tremendously since leaving him home for the season opener in Seattle. After they moved past that episode, Ajayi went to Gase with a list of plays he felt best suited him and guaranteed that he’d get viable yardage if the Dolphins relied on those selections.
This was before the 200-yard outbursts, so it was a gutsy move by a player with no significant résumé, but Gase listened.
Jay Ajayi vaulted himself into elite company with a pair of 200-yard rushing games, placing his name among some of the best running backs in NFL history, but that has yet to translate to off-field fame.
He’s been recognized in public occasionally in South Florida over the past three weeks, and a recent bye week trip to New York, he noticed little had changed in terms of his anonymity.
“I think maybe like a couple people at the hotel — maybe,” he said when asked if he made it through his travels without any fanfare. “But I’m still just me, I guess.”
It’s a pretty good time to be just Ajayi. After starting the season adrift on the Dolphins’ depth chart, he’s locked in his position as their premiere running back, climbed to the top 10 in the league in rushing and gets a chance against the Jets on Sunday (1 p.m., CBS) to become the first player ever to run for 200 or more yards in three consecutive games.
“I know in the NFL it’s hard to get 100 yards, so for us to get back-to-back 200-yard games is a credit to the hard work that we’ve all put in — the o-line, the receivers, myself,” he said. “If it does happen again, that’s going to be an amazing thing, an incredible thing.”
Ajayi never cracked 50 yards until rolling up 204 on the Steelers and is suddenly more than halfway toward a 1,000-yard season. It’s been a fascinating emergence for someone who’s biography was already pretty full at 23 years old — he was born in England to Nigerian parents before living in Maryland, Texas and Idaho — but in a way this seems completely ordinary to him.
He knows the 200-yard mark is an elusive target for any running back and he’s not claiming it was easy. That said, he doesn’t view it as a fluke, either.
“I know it’s not logical to say you can rush for 200 yards every game,” he said. “But if our run game is as dominant as it has been these past couple of weeks and if we can just keep playing like that … I think we’ll be all right.”
Keeping this, or anything close to it, going against the Jets will be tough. New York is No. 1 in the league in run defense and last against the pass, creating an obvious opening for Miami to air it out. Adam Gase hinted after Wednesday’s practice that he’s inclined to stick with what’s been working, but also added, “you do what’s best for that game.”
His trust in Ajayi has grown tremendously since leaving him home for the season opener in Seattle. After they moved past that episode, Ajayi went to Gase with a list of plays he felt best suited him and guaranteed that he’d get viable yardage if the Dolphins relied on those selections.
This was before the 200-yard outbursts, so it was a gutsy move by a player with no significant résumé, but Gase listened.
More at LINK: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/sports...lofty-rushing-records/qICRiQgQoJEThfdA0lbI6J/
Your thoughts?
