Jan 6, 2017 By Jim Wexell for The 10 min read

PITTSBURGH — According to Pro Football Focus, an organization which dotes over every play and keeps track of the numbers hidden therein, Miami Dolphins running back Jay Ajayi led the NFL this season in yards per carry after contact at 3.5 and broken tackles at 58.

And most of that began in the Dolphins’ Week 6 30-15 upset of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The teams meet again in an AFC wildcard playoff game on Sunday at Heinz Field and the Steelers, of course, are looking for a way to prevent Ajayi from breaking tackles and rushing for the 204 yards that he did back then.

It was the largest rushing total against the Steelers in 16 years and only the sixth 200-yard rushing game allowed in team history, going all the way back to the first, Steve Van Buren, in 1947.

O.J. Simpson’s on that list, too. Fred Taylor had been the last, until Ajayi came along.

And he did most of his damage in the second half of the game.

Until halftime that day, Ajayi had 51 yards on 11 carries, and 355 yards on 122 NFL carries (2.9 avg.) since the 5-11 3/4, 229-pounder had been drafted in the fifth round of the 2015 draft out of Boise State.

But even in the first half Ajayi found a few things to his liking, mainly the right side of the Steelers defense where linebacker Jarvis Jones was being used as a defensive end in a nickel 4-2-5 alignment, into which rookie Artie Burns was inserted outside as the third cornerback.

After hitting that sweet spot between Jones and Burns a couple of times, and after Ben Roethlisberger had been injured and the Steelers were able to run only five offensive plays in the second quarter, Ajayi and the Dolphins began pounding the middle.

Right before the snap that resulted in a touchdown late in the half, which put the Dolphins up for good, cameras caught Steelers inside linebacker Lawrence Timmons vomiting.

If Ajayi’s game-clinching 62-yard touchdown run with 50 seconds left in the game wasn’t the iconic takeaway that day, Timmons’ puking was.

He received a second IV at halftime, but it didn’t help the Steelers as Ajayi rumbled for 153 more yards on 14 carries.

A game later, Ajayi became the fourth back in NFL history with back-to-back 200-yard games and eight games after that he became the fourth back in NFL history with three 200-yard games in one season.

Ajayi finished the season with 1,272 rushing yards, the third-highest total in team history, and he led the NFL with 1,155 yards in the last 11 games.

Or, since Pittsburgh came to town.

And the Steelers? Well, they just gave up 231 rushing yards to the 1-15 Cleveland Browns last Sunday, but still finished 11-5 and earned the home field this Sunday against the Dolphins.

Not that the Steelers have been all that dreadful against the run this season. Ajayi, and then the New England Patriots, the Baltimore Ravens and Ezekiel Elliott and the Dallas Cowboys composed a four-game losing streak that brought about several of the following Steelers changes — changes that allowed the resting of key players last Sunday against the Browns.

1. James Harrison

How long can the Steelers continue to turn to this guy? Well, Elliott’s game-winning 32-yard run through a gaping hole with nine seconds left was Jones’ last meaningful snap as a starter for the Steelers. The former first-round pick was given every opportunity to live up to his draft status but not only was he bullied by a tight end on that play, he used the wrong technique, and thus Harrison started the next game and hasn’t looked back.

Jones did start last Sunday against the Browns, but only because the 38-year-old Harrison has become such an important piece in coordinator Kevin Butler’s 4-2-5 nickel scheme. Harrison, at 260-plus pounds of muscle, not only understands the drop schemes of an outside linebacker, he has the strength to play what amounts to defensive end in the nickel, and therefore isn’t bullied like most every other 3-4 OLB prototype in the Steelers’ traditional scheme has been the last few seasons.

In the seven games Harrison started this season, the Steelers are 7-0 (4-5 otherwise), allowed 16.1 points per game (23.8), 276 yards per game (394) and 3.5 yards per carry (4.9).

The difference in the numbers makes a strong case for Harrison as the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year, if not Defensive MVP. In the least it will make Ajayi’s task more difficult.

2. Injury to Cam Heyward

It’s the definition of counter-intuitive, for sure, because Heyward was the heart and soul of the Steelers defense before going down for the season with a torn pectoral muscle against the Cowboys.

The Steelers haven’t lost since, and a few weeks ago left guard Ramon Foster likened the injury — and subsequent improvement of Heyward’s remaining unit — to the 2015 injury suffered by center Maurkice Pouncey.

“What’s happening to the defensive front happened to us last year,” Foster said. “We lost Pounce and people stepped up. People got better because they had to get better, and then when they got better they developed a real confidence in themselves. It carried over to this year and I think you’re seeing that, with Pounce back, we’re a pretty good unit.

“I think you’re seeing the same thing with (Stephon) Tuitt and those guys stepping up this year. And then next year when Cam comes back, those guys are going to be terrifying.”

Tuitt had been on a rampage until injuring his knee against the Cincinnati Bengals in Game 14, but he’s back for the playoffs, and in place of Tuitt and Heyward the rest of the linemen grew into solid, veteran players.

“I know I done grown up,” said rookie NT/DT Javon Hargrave. “I was definitely a rookie last time we played Miami. I just wasn’t detailed enough. I wasn’t doing a lot of things right. I mean, I was, but there was still a lot of nervousness to it.”

Hargrave also played against Dolphins center Mike Pouncey that day in mid-October. And Maurkice’s twin brother, the three-time Pro Bowler, is now on injured reserve.

L.T. Walton, a second-year player, is another who’s improved drastically this season. He’s the likely starter if Ricardo Mathews — who had filled in for Heyward (hamstring) that day in Miami — continues to struggle with an ankle injury. And that’s if the Steelers use much of their 3-4 anyway, because Hargrave takes most of the reps at tackle next to Tuitt in the four-man nickel front.

The Steelers also developed better depth on the nose with the monumental strides being made the last few weeks by 6-7, 352-pound Dan McCullers.

3. Rookies ‘done grown up’

Hargrave, the third-round pick mentioned above, isn’t the only example. The Steelers have also seen genuine growth in Burns, their first-round pick, at cornerback and second-round pick Sean Davis at strong safety.

Neither rookie started in Miami, although Burns was targeted frequently in the run game because he had difficulty with crack/replace, the method by which a Dolphins wide receiver would take out strong safety Rob Golden with a crackback-type of block and Burns was asked to replace as the tackler outside.

Needless to say, Burns didn’t replace very well.

“That’s one of the ways to get out to the perimeter,” said Burns. “And me, especially being a rookie, that’s a way for them to get at me, and they looked forward to it.”

The Steelers waited one more game after Miami to make Burns the starting cornerback and former outside corner Will Gay their slot corner off the bench. The 6-0, 197-pound Burns has shown more than prowess as a ballhawk with three interceptions.

“Artie Burns is a much better fundamental tackler now than he was when we played those guys,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “But I’m not going to seek comfort in that.”

Why not?

“Boy, if you’re talking about corners as your first line of defense in terms of stopping the run, that’s a bad discussion,” Tomlin said. “There are some bigger people more suited for that action who play in front of them that better have a lot to say about it.”

Davis is another rookie who wasn’t put into his most comfortable spot until after midseason. The 6-1, 202-pounder started two games as a slot corner before replacing Golden at his natural strong safety position the week after the loss to the Cowboys. So, those stats which are aligned with Harrison, they can be aligned with Davis to some degree. He was voted the team’s Rookie of the Year last week by the writers covering the team.

4. Health & Intangibles

n If Heyward isn’t the best defensive player on the team, Ryan Shazier is. And he sat out the last Dolphins game. The inside linebacker may not be the run-stuffing ILB that sidekick Timmons is, but Shazier might be the fastest linebacker in the league, which helps him get from sideline to sideline, and from deep in coverage to deep into opposing backfields.

n Bud Dupree may still be developing as a “bend-the-corner” pass-rusher, but the 2015 first-round draft pick is off the PUP list and in the starting lineup in place of the 2015 sixth-round draft pick, Anthony Chickillo, who started the Dolphins game. As a starter the last four games, Dupree compiled 4.5 sacks to finish half a sack behind Harrison for the team lead.

n The heat that day certainly didn’t help the Steelers, although Timmons, the Florida State product, refused to admit the 81-degree, 79-percent humidity played a part in his physical woes.

“I’m actually used to the heat,” he said. “The problem was something I was taking to prep myself for the game, but I didn’t respond, my stomach didn’t react well.”

The temperature in Pittsburgh on Sunday is forecast to be 17 degrees at kickoff, which brought a smile to Maurkice Pouncey’s face.

“Them guys from South Beach coming up?” Pouncey asked. “Make it one degree out there. And it might be. It was a hundred degrees when we went down there.”

n The Steelers in mid-October had not yet realized how to best utilize their own star running back, Le’Veon Bell. The last six games have witnessed the emergence of a Big Boy package of guard/tackle Chris Hubbard as a third tight end, Rosie Nix at fullback and their best blocking tight end, David Johnson, as an H-back in a varying rotation. In the five games Bell has played with the “Big Boys,” the Steelers have controlled the ball close to 32 minutes per game. At Miami, they controlled it only 23:30 as Bell carried only 10 times (for 53 yards). Expect a different offensive approach this time.

5. Mindset

There’s little doubt the Steelers have improved most, if not all, of the weaknesses that Ajayi and the Dolphins exposed in mid-October. But the important point is the Steelers have great respect for Ajayi. Their mindset was verbalized by Tomlin earlier this week.

“We are not going to pretend like Jay Ajayi’s 200-yard day was a lightning strike,” Tomlin said. “No, it was very real.”

Tomlin was asked how much of a factor the Dolphins’ healthy offensive line that day played in Ajayi’s success.

“I’m not going to seek comfort and that would be seeking comfort,” Tomlin said. “I’m not going to make excuses for the performance. They handed it to us very well and we have to acknowledge that part of having a better performance this time is acknowledging that.”