Reggie Bush was not his usual self in Sunday's overtime loss at Arizona, and he said as much on Wednesday. Coming back from a knee injury that sidelined him midway through Week 3 against the Jets, Bush could not deliver the chunks of yards and scoring threat that had him among the league's rushing leaders through the first two weeks of the season.
"I was hurting; I'm not going to lie," Bush told the Miami Herald Wednesday. "I tried to fight through it. I did the best I could."
Bush finished with 67 yards on 17 carries, for an average of 3.9 yards a carry. He was averaging 6.0 yards per carry heading into the Arizona game.
With Bush at half-speed, the Dolphins could have given more carries to backups Daniel Thomas and Lamar Miller. But those two combined for just eight carries, suggesting Miami is not nearly as comfortable with either handling the ball too much.
Instead, the Dolphins took to the air, and rookie QB Ryan Tannehill delivered with a 431-yard performance on 26 of 41 passing (63%). But even that was not enough to hold off the Cardinals, as two critical turnovers by Tannehill in the fourth quarter and overtime set up Arizona's game-tying and winning scores.
The Dolphins had depended heavily on Bush before he went down against the Jets, and Sunday's ending showed why the team is content to let the veteran carry the load on offense.
"I'm not going to make any excuses," Bush told the Herald. "I've got to play better. I didn't play well at all." He did say that his knee is feeling better, though he has been limited in practice this week.
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Bush will get a chance to redeem himself against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, and he could very well bounce back with a vengeance. The Bengals are in the bottom third of the NFL in rushing yards allowed with 133.5 per game, though only one back has broken the century mark against them this season (Cleveland's Trent Richardson rushed for 109 yards on 19 carries in Week 2).
