Way back in Week 6, the Miami Dolphins turned their season around by turning to second-year back Jay Ajayi as their lead man out of the backfield. Their opponent that Sunday was the Pittsburgh Steelers, who the Miami defense surprisingly held to 15 points while Ajayi racked up 204 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. When all was said and done, the Dolphins came away with a 30-15 win, which started a six-game streak.

This Sunday, now traveling to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers in the playoffs, the Dolphins' best course of action is to try to replicate that Week 6 game plan as closely as they can.

  • Who: Miami Dolphins (10-6) at Pittsburgh Steelers (11-5)
  • When: Sunday, January 8, 1:05 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Where: Heinz Field, Pittsburgh, PA
  • Latest Line: The Steelers are 10.5-point favorites, according to SportsLine

Who controls the clock?

One of the major components in that Week 6 win was time of possession. The Dolphins held the ball for 36:30 compared to just 23:30 for the Steelers. It was quite unusual at the time, as the Dolphins had lost the time of possession battle by at least nine minutes in each of their first five games. The 13-minute time of possession advantage in the win over Pittsburgh wound up being Miami's second-largest advantage of the season, topped only by its win the following week over Buffalo, in which Ajay again ran for over 200 yards.

Winning the time of possession battle again will be extremely important because, well, the Dolphins are extremely unlikely to hold the Pittsburgh offense to 15 points again. Miami had a considerably below-average defense this season, ranking 29th in yards allowed, 18th in points allowed, and 19th in Football Outsiders' DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average, which adjusts performance for down, distance, and opponent). Over the final six weeks of the season, the defense was even worse. The Dolphins ranked last in yards allowed, 27th in points allowed, and last in defensive DVOA from Week 12 through Week 17.

Pittsburgh has one of the best offenses in the NFL. Anytime Ben Roethlisberger has the ball is danger time for Miami, which means the Dolphins again have to turn to Ajayi to help control the clock and grind the game to a halt. The fewer plays in the game, the less opportunity there is for the Steelers to exert their talent advantage over the Dolphins defense. No team averaged more seconds between snaps than the Dolphins this season (29.84, per Football Outsiders), so it seems that Adam Gase's coaching staff at least recognized the need to slow things down and did the best they could do so. (They ground the clock even more anytime they were leading by seven or more points, running an average of 33.37 seconds off the clock between plays.)

The Dolphins' best defense against the explosive Steelers offense is Jay Ajayi eating up clock. USATSI

In the first matchup, Ajay found his most success when running toward the perimeter of the Pittsburgh defense. On 16 carries between the tackles, Ajayi totaled 73 rushing yards. That's good for 4.5 yards a pop, but nowhere close to his average on perimeter carries. When running anywhere outside the tackle box, Ajayi racked up 131 yards on only nine carries. Even if you take out his 62-yard scamper around the right edge, eight other outside carries yielded 69 yards, or 8.6 per carry.

Getting an edge on the Steelers

That type of success makes sense, as Pittsburgh's cadre of outside linebackers are mostly pass-rushing types, while the front of their 3-4 defense is generally pretty strong against the run. Attacking the edge, particularly if you can get the rushers to push upfield off the snap, is a good strategy.

Ajayi wasn't the strongest up-the-middle runner throughout this season anyway. He averaged just 3.4 yards per carry on runs between the guards this season, per Pro Football Focus, and 3.1 on runs between right guard and right tackle. On outside runs, he fared much better. Ajayi's rushes outside the right tackle yielded 5.9 yards per carry and those outside the left tackle gained 6.9 per carry. Rushing to the outside also enabled Ajayi to find much more space after first contact, which is one of his best skills. Once you hit the perimeter, if you break a tackle, you can take off into open space. Breaking a tackle on the inside often simply leads a ball-carrier into more tackles that have to be broken.

Getting Ajayi going is even more important for the Dolphins in this game than the first matchup because, of course, they don't have their starting quarterback. Ryan Tannehill has been out for a few weeks now and Matt Moore has filled in admirably, but Moore doesn't have the same ability as Tannehill to either escape rushers with his athleticism or work designed runs out of the zone-read. That puts much more pressure on Ajayi and the Miami running game to get the Dolphins into good down-and-distance situations with success on first and second down. They can still use their quick passing game with Jarvis Landry to work as an extension of the rushing attack, but Moore and Landry did not show much chemistry prior to connecting several times late in Miami's blowout loss to the Patriots in Week 17.

They key for any team facing long odds as an underdog (again, the Dolphins are 10.5-point underdogs) is often to enact so-called David strategies. That means being ultra-aggressive on fourth downs and in any potential scoring situations, breaking out trick plays, or finding a way to shorten the game. Miami may employ the first two tactics, but its best best is undoubtedly using their workhorse running back to make the game shorter and keep the Steelers offense off the field for as long as possible. Ben, Le'Veon Bell, and Antonio Brown can still make the most of their opportunities, but you're better off giving them as few opportunities as possible. That means riding Ajayi all afternoon.