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MIAMI -- Grateful for great blocking that paved the way to his first career 200-yard game, Miami Dolphins running back Jay Ajayi offered to treat his offensive line to dinner.The response: Well take a rain check.I just wanted to show some appreciation to those guys, Ajayi said. They told me, `Its not a one-hit thing, and, `Lets do it again. And lo and behold, we did it again.Ajayi tied an NFL record by topping 200 yards rushing in a second consecutive game, and this week he became the first running back to win offensive player of the week in back-to-back weeks since LaDainian Tomlinson a decade ago.Even then there was little celebrating, because Ajayi has the Dolphins thinking big.By carrying Miami (3-4) to victories over Pittsburgh and Buffalo, he saved the season and raised hopes the franchises eight-year postseason drought might soon end.When were in the playoff hunt, I can celebrate, tackle Branden Albert said. Until then Im not celebrating. He doesnt need to take us out to dinner. Im just happy hes doing good and were doing good as a team.The Dolphins have reason to believe their recent success can be sustained.Following a wave of injuries and illness in an offensive line that includes four former first-round draft picks, the group was finally intact for the past two games, allowing Miami to physically dominate teams coached by Mike Tomlin and Rex Ryan.In other words, the wins were no fluke.This team can be special if we keep doing the things were doing, center Mike Pouncey said.Mostly what theyre doing is handing the ball to Ajayi, a second-year pro from England who has more than doubled his career rushing total in the past fortnight.At 6-foot and 229 pounds, Ajayi mixes a bruising running style with breakaway speed, and hes the first player since the 1970 merger to rush for 200 yards in two of his first three career starts. He has the only 200-yard games in the NFL this season, and his averages of 6.4 yards per carry and 4.1 yards after contact lead the league .Thats a big man running hard, not slowing down, sticking his foot in the ground, getting north, first-year Miami coach Adam Gase said. Hes running through arm tackles, and all of a sudden we started getting all these explosive plays.Fans, the media and flattened defenders ask the same question: When did this guy come from?Ajayi (pronounced uh-JYE-ee) was born in London to Nigerian parents and is a British citizen with lots of family and friends in England. He speaks with a British accent, and sounds particularly English when asked if hes the best soccer player on the Dolphins.I would believe so, he said with a smile.Lately hes their best football player, too. He moved to the United States in grade school unfamiliar with the game, but soon took it up while also playing soccer.The divided attention slowed his progress.My dad sat me down and was telling me to decide on one, because, he told me, I could be good at both, or be great at one, Ajayi recalled.Showing the instincts of a good running back, he chose the right path. After starring in high school near Dallas, Ajayi went to Boise State, where he became the first FBS player to total 1,800 yards rushing and 500 receiving in a season.The Dolphins waited until the fifth round to draft him in 2015, and even then the pick was critiqued as a reach, because of doubts about his durability because of a knee issue.Ajayi came off the bench in nine games as a rookie and totaled 187 yards rushing. He was anointed a likely starter this season after Lamar Miller departed in free agency, but during training camp, Gase perceived a misplaced sense of entitlement regarding playing time and became increasingly annoyed.When the Dolphins opened the season at Seattle, Ajayi didnt even make the travel roster.We had a rough 10 days, Gase said. But he centered himself and then started over.In Week 5, Ajayi made his first start and became hard to stop. He blossomed into the Dolphins Great Briton, and teammates now rave about his resilience and relentlessness.To play the way hes playing, it just makes me smile every time I think about it, Pouncey said, because a lot of guys would have tanked and gone the other way, getting benched right after thinking youre starting the season off.Gase is optimistic he can keep his international celebrity humble, hungry and healthy. In interviews, Ajayi seems genial, modest and a little overwhelmed by all the attention hes getting, whether from the BBC or school friends he had lost touch with.Im learning a lot about myself, he said. Im taking each week by itself, and just pushing to get through what happened earlier this year, and moving forward from that. Being in this position, it feels good, and we just want to keep building off that and not be satisfied.Celebratory dinners can wait.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL---Follow Steven Wine on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Steve-Wine. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/steven-wineUSA Soccer Shirts . Catch all the action on TSN2 at 11pm et/8pm pt. The nine-time Big 12 champion Jayhawks are positioning themselves for another title, as they have run out to a flawless 6-0 mark in conference play thus far. Stitched USA Soccer Jerseys . Jason Zucker and Matt Cooke also scored for Minnesota, which has won five of six. Kuemper made five saves in the first, nine in the second, and nine in the third. The rookies best save came with 2:17 left in the third period when he denied former Wild forward Matt Cullen from just outside of the crease on the right side. https://www.cheapusasoccer.com/ .C. -- Kemba Walker and the Charlotte Bobcats got off to a fast start, and the Sacramento Kings were never quite able to catch up. Wholesale USA Soccer Jerseys . -- Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson asked his players a simple question during Fridays morning shootaround: How many of them had ever been on a team 14 games over . USA Soccer Store . -- Bryant McKinnie came out of his stance and lowered his shoulder into a practice squad player, causing a crisp thud to reverberate in the Miami Dolphins practice bubble.Juan Martin del Potro was already the feel-good story of the 2016 mens tennis year before this weekends thunderclap ending in Zagreb, Croatia. But his titanic comeback Sunday that sent Argentina winging to its first Davis Cup title just made his year seem more monumental -- and emotional -- and sparked new dreams of how he could stir up the mix in 2017.The sight of Del Potro standing on court, arms outstretched and head thrown back, soaking in the chants and love of the 1,500 or so Argentine fans who had traveled halfway around the world to see it, was the sort of moment he wasnt sure he would ever get to experience. But it was a beautifully fitting 2016 curtain call for one of the most popular but star-crossed men in tennis. Its hard to exaggerate how hard and despair-filled his climb back has been.Del Potro was only 20 when he beat Rafael Nadal in the semifinals and then Roger Federer in the final to win the 2009 U.S. Open, snapping Federers title string at five. No one else had ever beaten those two back-to-back in a Slam by then, and big things seem guaranteed for Del Potro. He already stood 6-foot-6; he could blast the ball off either wing and yet move like a much smaller man. But starting the very next year, Del Potro endured three wrist surgeries and sometimes doubted he would ever play on tour again, let alone find himself standing there Sunday after rallying from a two-sets-to-love deficit for the first time in his career to beat Marin Cilic, and spark Argentinas last-day comeback against Croatia.Federico Delbonis, primarily a clay-courter, finished it off with an assured win against Ivo Karlovic, a man ranked 20 places higher than him, and Del Potro joined the Argentine team as it sprinted out to mob Delbonis on the court afterward, and then hoist the trophy as confetti rained down.It was Argentinas first win in five trips to the Davis Cup final, and Del Potro, who had been a part of two of those previous losses, was so overcome he admitted it was hard for him to speak.Thanks to all those who prevented me from retiring, he said. I was very close to never playing again, and, well, here I am.Del Potro, now 28, had played only 14 matches in all of 2014 and 15, when he started this latest comeback at a small-scale tournament in Delray Beach, Florida, in February. His world ranking had plummeted to 1,042, and the early scouting reports were downbeat. Del Potro still had his sledgehammer forehand, and his serve was fine. But his backhand was a whisper of what it was, and no one knew when -- or if?-- it would come back enough. Leasst of all him.ddddddddddddI dont know if I can be in the top positions again, he said at one point this summer. But if not, I will be happy just to be playing tennis again.But Del Potro adjusted -- Hes a genius, [and] his heart is so big, Argentina Davis Cup captain Daniel Orsanic said Sunday -- and his year really began to take off after he upset Stan Wawrinka in the second round at Wimbledon. He seemed to fall upon something strategic then: using his low-slice backhand as a tempo-changing complement to his booming forehand.From there, it was on to the Rio Olympics, where Del Potro upset top-ranked Novak Djokovic in the first round, reducing the Serb star to tears. Then he knocked off Nadal in their semifinal match.Though Andy Murray -- now the world No. 1 -- beat Del Potro in a four-hour final for the gold medal, Del Potro was again heartened. Playing as a wild-card entry in the U.S. Open a few weeks later, Del Potro roared to the quarterfinals and broke down crying when fans there surprised him by spontaneously serenading him with chants of Delpo in the wee hours of the morning, even though Wawrinka was about to avenge his Wimbledon loss by serving out their match.Del Potro had another breakthrough when he won his first title in 33 months by beating Jack Sock at the Stockholm Open in October.Then, faced with beating Murray again -- this time at last months Davis Cup semifinals in London -- he clawed out a five-set thriller in 5 hours and 7 minutes, the longest match either of them had ever played, to end Britains reign as Davis Cup champs.That win, like Sundays team victory against Croatia, was the sort of unprecedented stuff that was predicted for Del Potro when he was a younger man. His honesty about all the doubts surrounding his career and his tears of appreciation sandwiched between those bookend moments of his career -- his 2009 U.S. Open win and Sunday -- has only endeared him to his fellow players and fans even more.Its easy to understand why. There is always something riveting about seeing someone whose life exceeds their dreams.No matter what happens from here, Juan Martin del Potro just forever became one of those athletes. He has now climbed to the summit of his sport twice. And part of what dignifies him is the shift in perspective and gratitude that has come with it.Im just so happy to be playing again, Del Potro said Sunday, again through tears. This kind of moment is what I was missing. ' ' '