Well, that didn’t take long.
After getting lauded for his work ethic throughout camp, Reggie Bush was criticized at length in a column Tuesday morning in the Miami Herald. Saints fans are rather familiar with the trend: A big August followed by an underwhelming September.
Bush’s numbers weren’t that bad. He had 11 rushes for 38 yards and caught nine passes for 56 yards, including a garbage time score.
The problem was more that Bush failed to make any big plays when he had the chance and had too many runs that didn’t go anywhere. (His last nine carries got 18 yards.) He also wasn’t an option in goal line situations, where the Dolphins were stuffed a few times.
One arm tackle by Albert Haynesworth on Bush was perhaps the most telling play. Miami didn’t try to run Bush inside after that.
“The apparent truth is that Bush really wasn’t built for this, even if you wanted to believe otherwise, and I, like many, did,” Israel Gutierrez wrote.
We never thought that Bush was built for it, but it seems a little early to draw conclusions. Bush said he loved being on the field more.
“It felt great,” Bush said. “It was everything I was looking forward to. It was everything I expected. . . . But we’re going back to the drawing board.”