I would say it's a number of things. First of all got to give it up to the Rams defense. Langford, Brockers...Tough to run against. We all should know that about Langford. He's one of the better run stoppers in the game. That Rams defense is really really good. They stuffed Arizona the week before as well. Chicago didn't run against them either. That Rams team is for real on the defensive side of the ball. I didn't expect a huge output today no matter who we would have put back there. Arizona, Jets, and the Bengals all have really good run defenses as well. It's not a shock to me that we haven't ran the ball well the last four weeks. As for Reggie Bush I just don't think the knee is 100% right now. I think he's gamer and therefore he's going to play but I can clearly see it in his cuts, and when he tries to accelerate that the explosion just isn't there right now. I think that is why we are seeing him go North and South more than the East/West we are used to. As for bashing Bush...I think he's the main reason we were able to get this win today. The touchdown drive to start the third off was all Reggie Bush minus the one yard TD catch by Fasano. Bush made every big play on that drive which gave us the 17-6 cushion. If we didn't get a TD on that opening drive we are looking at overtime or possibly a Rams win. It's not like he didn't do anything out there for us. Lets not bash a guy for having some grit to him and playing through a bum knee (which he is clearly trying to work out). Bush will be fine after the bye week and I expect big things from him the second half of the season the same way he did it last year. Another win for us so quit complaining about everything.
Because I choose not to bash a guy for trying too hard. Plus, as others have said the line needs to do a better job of run blocking. They are allowing too much penetration.
Trying too hard would be fine if he were playing an individual sport, where whatever he was "trying" to do wasn't hurting 52 other guys.
And there is some merit to that. However, he can do that sort of thing without being the starting tailback and, for the second week in a row, almost losing the game with poor runs when the clock needed to be killed. Like Disgustipate said, he's running like the New Orleans bust. He may be receiving the ball well and helping us win in that way, but he did that in New Orleans, as well, and in fact he was arguably the best receiving tailback in the league with them. However, he wasn't their starting tailback or their primary ball-carrier, and IMO we're starting to see why.
So you don't want Reggie Bush to be our starting RB? Who do you want to start and get the majority of the carries?
Thinking Reggie Bush isn't cut out to be a starting tailback in the National Football League and thinking we currently have a better alternative to him are two different things.
It would be nice to see that with my own eyes with him having a fair chance to get his groove on. I've seen good things and bad things. But the coaches obviously share your opinion by their actions.
I see baby steps. He had a chance to make a big play on ST's and blew that. Just fall on the ball. Speed in college is one thing. Smarts in the NFL are different. I don't see it from him at all.
I don't think Bush is the problem. IMO, he has been running around too much since his injury. He was just hitting thh eole and exploding down field before that happened. He needs to strt doing more of that. And the line needs to do a better job of both run blocking and pass protection.
You started the thread. No reason to be rude. I was just asking what you have in mind as an alternative to Reggie. If that is too much too ask well then I'm confused about why you are making such a strong statement. Same as I said when you wanted Moore to be the starter. I asked and you didn't produce anything that really made anyone here think otherwise.
It could also be the case that the injury has little or nothing to do with it, and the early season success he had got to his head and made him believe he could do more than he really can. Remember, he has this individual goal to lead the league in rushing, which is fine, but it's not fine if it makes him play as though he's putting that individual goal ahead of doing what's best for the team in a given situation. If the situation is that we need the clock killed by getting ONE YARD, focus on getting the one yard, not on breaking one.
It's gotten to the point that I would rather have the UDFA Lane carry the ball OR have our rookie QB throw it short to kill the clock, rather than give it to Bush.
Last game, I thought Bush tried to do too much. This game, I thought the OL just got beat. I would give the Bush criticism at this point as much credence as I gave the "case for starting Matt Moore" arguments.
A word of advice .If you dont like a thread or the PO , stay away from it .There is no obligation to reply .In fact by taking potshots you are only giving more life to the thread you dont like which does not make much sense.
The blocking has certainly been an issue in some cases, but Bush has repeatedly made bad situations worse. Outside of the pitch play where a defender had him dead to rights almost immediately, he's exacerbated situations by going backwards or trying to reverse field when he should be trying to get back to the line of scrimmage. Then a significant portion of our bad rush plays the last couple weeks have been Bush missing cutback lanes. He does that even when he's successful, but he's physically talented enough to bail himself out. Except now when he's not 100%, he can't and he's making it worse.
I respectfully disagree. He's not Ronnie Brown so I don't understand why you'd want to turn a homerun threat into some ordinary possession back. Marcus Allen helped the Raiders win a SB on a similarly bottled up run. I understand "taking what the defense gives you", but when that "giving you" is a negative gain, there's nothing wrong with a playmaker like Reggie trying to turn that loss into some chunk yardage and a potential TD, even if it's at the risk of losing another yard. OTOH, if he's routinely turning solid 4 yard gains into less (ala Chris Johnson) b/c of trying to do too much, then I'd agree fully with you.
Very much agree. What percent of this would you say revolves around our receiving corps not scaring defenses?
Because there are times when POSSESSION ALONE wins games, like when you're killing the clock and all you need is a yard for a first down. If you can't adjust your game and become a possession back under those circumstances, you have a problem IMO, and it's what signals to me that he has a problem in general. If he can't adjust his game from "try to hit the home run" to "take what's there" when all you need is a first down and possession to win a game, what makes you think he can do it at other times? IMO he's stuck in one style of running, and it's not a style he has the ability to pull off (i.e., he isn't Barry Sanders), and not a style that works at all in the NFL unless you have the ability to pull it off.
So the blame goes to me. Wow. I was asking who should be the starting RB. I thought debate was welcome. Especially after being personally attacked. I guess fairness has been lost.
From what I can see, the OL is the major problem, and if they were blocking decently this entire conversation wouldn't exist.
I recall Adrian Peterson not being able to gain a yard against us, and it cost Minnesota the game. Vikings should've drafted his replacement after that short-yardage failure. I'm not trying to discredit your argument in a straw man attempt, but it almost seems like you're hating just to hate. Reggie's already had a season rushing for 1086 yards and 5.0 YPC, yet you're acting like the past few games are his first as our starter. Seriously, what's the deal?
It looked more to me like this game it was mainly their DL just beating the blocks of our OL too quickly.
The guy has turned major losses into good gains on more than one occasion. He had no holes and no protection... What do you want?.... Wow.
IMO he's running differently now than he has at any other time he's been with us. And I'm not the only one who has voiced that opinion in this thread.
Bush strikes me as the kind of guy whose vision depends entirely on that initial push. If you can get that, then he'll make his move and get yardage. It may very well be throwing him off. This stuff is not cut and dry, it's very dynamic and while Daniel Thomas may still get his 3 YPC with a ****ty line, Bush may need that 2 yard initial gain due to the line to get himself going.
Shouright, perhaps if Hartline could get open today and not drop his ONLY potential reception, Reggie wouldn't feel the pressure of having to overcome Brian's shortcomings.
If I had to guess, then I would say, he's still struggling with his knee issue. He seems to be lacking his explosion imo.
Precisely. It doesn't have to be one or the other, the line OR Reggie Bush. He may not be the kind of back who can run in a zone blocking scheme, where the impetus is one cut and go.