How Dolphins RB Jay Ajayi Torched the Pittsburgh Defense

Twenty-three-year-old Miami Dolphins running back Jay Ajayi is still young enough to be described as a prospect. A 2015 fifth-round draft pick, he had a little more than 300 yards on 80 carries before Sunday's game. But against the Pittsburgh Steelers, he "broke out" to the tune of 204 yards on 25 carries, almost doubling his career yardage.

Pittsburgh had a few problems in this game. One was that stalwart end Cameron Heyward was inactive for the first time in his NFL career, and therefore wasn't able to help plug holes at the line. Middle linebacker Ryan Shazier also didn't play due to a sprained MCL. And, finally, Pittsburgh's edge setters at outside linebacker just aren't very good. Jarvis Jones and Bud Dupree have been, unfortunately, busts in every area to this point of their careers.

So let's play a little game with some big Jay Ajayi gains. Keep note of how far Ajayi gets before he was touched, and how many of those tackles were even hard to run through.

Here's the game-sealer, a long touchdown run that put an exclamation point on the victory:

Ajayi takes the ball at around his own 35, and I'm pretty sure someone eventually gets a hand on him at the Pittsburgh 45, but the only clean tackle attempt tries to dive and comes up completely empty. This is an enormous hole for a NFL running back. Enormous.

This next one goes to left guard, which helps Pittsburgh contain it inside a little more effectively. It looks like Laremy Tunsil (78) gets away with a bit of hold here, but there are only arm tackles until Ajayi hits the safety.

Back outside again, notice how the edge support for Pittsburgh gets completely played. There are two inside players with terrible angles to Ajayi, while corner Artie Burns gets completely sucked in and leaves Ajayi with a clear path to the sideline.

A lot of Miami's success in the running game can be traced back to their ability to block out of multiple-tight-end sets, and Pittsburgh didn't have much of an answer for this. But Ajayi's big game was more about the pieces in front of him than anything special he demonstrated. That's not to say he's not a great prospect, but after a second look, I became more concerned about how many yards the Steelers will give up to LeGarrette Blount next Sunday.