Through three games with the Eagles, Jay Ajayi has just 20 carries.
To put that in perspective, before the trade to Philly this season, he had four individual games in Miami with more carries.
Ajayi had just five rushing attempts in Sunday's 31-3 win over the Bears (see Roob's observations).
"It's coach's call," Ajayi said Sunday night about the distribution. "Take advantage of the opportunities when you get them."
Ajayi didn't have a great afternoon against the Bears. He had minus-4 yards rushing until a 30-yarder early in the fourth quarter. And on the tail end of that 30-yarder, he fumbled the ball away. Luckily for the Eagles, Nelson Agholor was there to fall on it (see story).
While Ajayi got just five carries, LeGarrette Blount got 15 carries for 97 yards.
Why was he the back of choice Sunday?
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"Well, again, a lot of it came down to the style of defense the Bears ran this afternoon," head coach Doug Pederson said. "They got into a little bit of a five-man front with a five-down, really a sixth guy being the linebacker. We had several run schemes again in the game plan like we normally do, and the ones were a little more conducive for him to run sort of downhill at them and attack them that way, so he was obviously the back of choice."
Even with his struggles Sunday, Ajayi did something pretty amazing. He had a 30-yard run for the third straight game. That's something LeSean McCoy, Brian Westbrook and Duce Staley never did in an Eagles uniform.
And Ajayi has done it in his first three games with the Eagles.
Ajayi clearly has some burst. It's shown several times this season. But on several occasions Sunday, it looks like he might have been trying to do too much instead of taking an easy gain. When asked in the locker room if that was the case, Ajayi simply said, "nope."
Ajayi said it's exciting to be on a team this good, that he's never been on a team like this.
But is he OK with his workload?
"I just run the plays that coaches call," he said. "I'm happy we're winning. Let's keep it going."