Will Reggie Bush run rampant in Miami?

The Miami Herald says the Dolphins are counting on Reggie Bush to be his USC self for the 2011 season. He was a good player for the New Orleans Saints but when it mattered and the game was on the line he oftentimes was down right terrible.

The Herald is asking the right questions though. "Can Bush handle a full workload? Can Thomas make an immediate impact as a rookie? Will Lex Hilliard or Kory Sheets make a jump as NFL prospects? Even coach Tony Sparano still has questions about what to expect.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/17/2363975/miami-dolphins-counting-on-running.html#ixzz1VR6RfrEJ

SEA DAT? Saints lose to Seahawks, Marshawn Lynch (video)

The New Orleans Saints got bumped from the playoffs with a 40-34 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Saturday.

Before the game few spectators and commentators gave the Seahawks few chances of staying with the high-powered Saints, but all that is on paper.

In reality, the Saints were beat-up and broken down, shells of their former selves. They suited up without starting running backs Pierre Thomas, Chris Ivory, safety Malcolm Jenkins and tight end Jeremy Graham.

By the third quarter of this one, Reggie Bush would be on the sidelines, saying that he had hurt "the same leg" that he broke earlier in the season.

Meanwhile, the Seahawks had nothing to lose, and came in confident and loose. The game came down to a stirring, theatrical 67-yard run by Seattle running back Marshawn Lynch. 

The word, "Beastmode" will forever be associated with this game.

The Saints, meanwhile, will have to regroup and retool and it will probably be without some of the people that got us here.

17-14: Saints avenge earlier loss to Falcons

Could this be the NFC Championship matchup? Saints edge the Falcons by three (although they should have won going away).
Drew Brees makes two awful mistakes that keep the suspense going in this one, but the Saints easily turn in their finest defensive performance of the season in beating Atlanta 17-14.

Cleveland Brown shock Saints 30-17 (VIDEO)

Last year it was the New Orleans Saints that caught teams by surprise, throwing care to the wind and dialing up all the gadgetry allowed on the gridiron.
The Cleveland Browns showed the world champs how it was done Sunday, amassing a whole 200 yards of offense and winning, going away, 30 -17, in the Super Dome.
Drew Brees had four interceptions, including two brought back for touchdowns by linebacker "Killer" Bowens.
Even former Saint Scott Fujita caught one of Bree's errant passes.
The Saints offense, going weeks now without Reggie Bush and Pierre Thomas, is anemic, incapable of any ground game and a desparate passing attack.
The only good news? Safety Darren Sharper is back after missing the first six games, and receiver Marques Colston finally surpassed 100 yards receiving and caught a touchdown.
But can the Saints still win the division?

Saints Are Banged Up, Bruised Up

The Arizona Cardinals are a good team, but last week's 10-point victory over the Saints exposed how banged up New Orleans is rather than how awesome the Cards are.

Drew Brees, with a gimpy knee, is struggling mightily without his two starting running backs, Pierre Thomas and Reggie Bush.

The screen plays that used to go for big gains have been null and void for the past two games.

The deep ball, which used to be a staple of the New Orleans offense, is gone.

Coach Sean Payton doesn't seem to worried about it all, according to a recent interview.

"You know how this league is. It's week by week," Payton said Monday. "Do I think we can play better? Yes. That's the thing that's encouraging; that's the thing that gets you here and started on the next plan and that's the thing that keeps you driven and motivated. We don't have to identify it as anything other than a setback. Any time you lose a game, we feel like it's disappointing, but what's most important is what you do about it."

Marques Colston showed up last week, but for most of the season he's been a nonfactor.

The defense is missing at least three starters, including Tracy Porter and Darren Sharper. Despite this, they are playing decent football, holding the Cards without a touchdown, except for a freaky fumble.

So, what's killing the Saints? Turnovers.

Brees had three of them Sunday. Against the Carolina Panthers they had two of them.

If we fix that, we'll be back on track.

Saints injuries just keep mounting

Saints quarterback Drew Brees has a brace on his knee.
Safety Darren Sharper was out even before the season started after undergoing surgery.
Running back Reggie Bush has a broken leg.
Pierre Thomas has knee and ankle problems.
Oh it goes on and on, that's just the big names.
The latest broken Saint? Safety Tracy Porter had knee surgery and will miss up to four weeks.
Can the Saints continue to compete with injuries mounting like they are?
Saints coach Sean Payton says it looks like the New Orleans has slowed down, but actually the defenses they are facing are dictating the way the Saints attack.
"Certainly we see people getting a little softer in their coverages and yet we still constantly are paying attention and looking for ways to get an optimum look to get behind the defense," Payton said in a recent interview. "But sometimes there are plays that when they come out of my mouth and Drew (Brees) calls them in the huddle, all of us are (thinking) 'shot' and then it ends up being a dump-off or a check-down. 

Can the Saints slow down the high-flying Falcons?

The New Orleans Saints are 2-0 and have won both games in dramatic fashion. Against the Vikings, the Saints struck early then went to a smashmouth running game to seal the victory, 14-10.
A week later, they traveled to Candlestick Park to face an aggressive 49er team and capitalized on four turnovers and the leg of kicker Garrett Hartley to escape with a 25-22 win.
It doesn't get any easier. This week, they host the Atlanta Falcons coming off a high-flying 41-7 win against the Arizona Cardinals.
The Saints will need more than 17 points to beat this team. Two offensive touchdowns a game won't cut it.
Will the Saints win? Especially without Reggie Bush, who broke his leg Monday night?
I don't know. What I do know is that with bruising running back Michael Turner coming to town, the Falcons will have faced three of the best running backs in the NFL in as many weeks.
In week one, Adrian Peterson ran around the Saints for 87 yards on 19 carries, a 4.6 yard-per-carry average.
In week two, Frank Gore plowed through them for 112 yards on 20 carries.
Now in week three, here comes Turner and a resurgent Jason Snelling.
How much can a defense take?

Why the Saints Season Sucked

They had good reasons you know.
And I won't call say "injuries" because, hey, every team suffers the hurts. It's the nature of the beast.
But the Saints had some devastating ones that absolutely killed their chances.
All-world receiver Marques Colston was left coughing up blood after some nasty hits against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 15.
To whom much is given, much is expected. And Reggie Bush had raised expectations tremendously after a hot finish in his inaugural season. He got roughed up pretty good too as the season wore down, ending in a mysterious knee injury
that may have been damaged weeks earlier.
Not to mention the injuries of all injuries this season, the end of Deuce McAllister's season.
Along the way, rookie and fan favorite Pierre Thomas got so savagely beaten that he had blood in his stool and a damaged kidney pierre_thomas_misses_practice.html toward the end of the season. He still put together the third-best yards from scrimmage by a Saint in team history in the season finale at Chicago.
Perhaps indemic of the season was the loss (torn ACL) of the best-playing defender, cornerback Mike McKenzie, the week before Christmas. And it's saying alot when Mckenzie is your best-playing defender, but without him the Saints secondary was little more defenseless than a baby in the jungle.
Saints coach Sean Payton never did like Pierre Thomas for some reason, and played him only out of desparation despite what he says. Thomas' start in the last game was actually cemented the week before against Philadelphia Reserve tailback Jamaal Branch suffered a broken leg on the opening kickoff against the Eagles and that crippled an already depleted running corps. That left the Saints with only Aaron Stecker and Pierre Thomas in the backfield. And shortly after, Stecker went down with a foot injury in the second quarter. At that point it was either Thomas or the trooper on the sidelines.
In any event this season was a referendum on Payton's true coaching abilities: He failed. Period. He failed to see early enough what he should have known. That the Saints have to have a plan D, plan Bs aren't good enough anymore (ask Arthur Blank, and dem Falcons). So, I leave you with that familiar refrain, and sigh: Maybe next year.

Why Bush's Season Sucked

Reggie Bush and galpal Kim Kardashian party on New Year's Eve in Miami.

Saints End Season 7-9, Who Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda Thunk It?

The season was just so ... pregnant with possibilities: Brees, Payton, Colston, Bush, Duece, playoffs, Super Bowl.
Dud.
That's what the season was, a dud.
The execution and playcalling that was so excellent and easy-looking in 2006 was mucky, sloppy for the 2007 campaign. Nothing summed up the season more than the botched Reggie Bush-to-Devery Henderson reverse on a crucial need-to-run-the-clock-out third down that cost the Saints a game against Tampa Bay. Or maybe it was the relentless inability of free agent bust cornerback Jason David to play even decent defense on man to man coverage. Who shoulda, woulda, coulda thought that David's best play would be the fumble return for TD in the first quarter of the first game of the season?
Surely the loss of running back Duece McAllister hurt them more than they thought.
"You understand when you lose a player like him you are going to change," Payton said. "Now you're asking the quarterback to drop back in no huddle and empty, playing from behind on the road. Last year we were able to get Deuce going in the second half, which kept the defense off the field. When you don't have that, it's harder to play good defense."
Still, looking at the numbers, Drew Brees set a team record for TDs in a season, and a league record for completions and will likely go to Hawaii as a reserve in the Pro Bowl. Not bad for a qb that at one point in the year had 1 TD to 11 interceptions.


"Seven-and-9 is a losing season," said Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who set one NFL record for completions in a season, set two team records (touchdown passes and yards in a season) and tied another club mark with 60 pass attempts in the game. "No one wants a losing season. This is very, very disappointing."
"There were ups and there were downs, there were good times and there were bad times," said defensive tackle Hollis Thomas. "You never want your season to end like this."

Said Brees: "We really felt one of the other teams would slip up and we'd be in (the playoffs). It didn't work out."
It worked out for Colston, who was snubbed by the Pro Bowl voters even though he numbers were better than most receivers.


"It's different," Payton said. "Different teams, different circumstances. An NFC championship game and 7-9. It's an irony that the season ended here, but we've got a lot of work ahead of us.
"The things that keep you from winning games came up, and it's a thing that hurt us in our losses this season," Coach Sean Payton said. "We had lots of big plays over our head, big plays in the kicking game. We lost that battle."
"It's been a rocky roller coaster," center Jeff Faine said. "I just didn't feel like we ever maintained our momentum for the year."
Momentum is something Reggie Bush didn't even smell this year: No flips into the end zone this year, not even any solid blocks. His numbers testify to his ineffectiveness this year. Of course, most of it can be blamed on the coaches' inability to utilize him effectively, but maybe Kim Kardashian has had a Jessica Simpson-like effect on him, who knows.


"We start this offseason with free agency and the draft and that's where our focus is going to be: on improving this team and getting ourselves back into the postseason next year where we belong."

Victory at Bears Is Last Hope For Saints

Okay, Saints, you MUST beat the Bears.
You must.
It wasn't that long ago, in a driving snow, that New Orleans struck fear in the most sturdy of Chicago fans: Reggie Bush took a swing pass, swerved past one defender and sped into the end zone and pulling the Saints to within two points in last year's playoffs.
Speaking of the P-word, the Saints (7-8) can still get back to the playoffs as a wild card if they win and both the Redskins and Vikings lose later in the day, but the Bears (6-9) were eliminated from playoff contention two games ago.
It’s a rematch of last year’s NFC title game, but neither the Saints nor the Bears are headed back to the game. The Bears come off an upset win, while the Saints come off an upset home loss to the Eagles as a disappointing season closes out.
As New Orleans heads to the Windy City, they have gameplanned to watch Bears kick returner Devin Hester.

“You have to pay attention to what he can do — he can single-handedly change a game,” Saints coach Sean Payton said. “There’s no question that he’s one of the best return guys that this game has seen. From a return standpoint, it’s been a while since this league has had someone of his magnitude.”
Hester has 11 returns for touchdowns in 34 NFL games. As a rookie last season he set an NFL record with six returns for touchdowns — three punts, two kickoffs, and a field goal. He became the first player in NFL history to return the opening kickoff of a Super Bowl for a TD.
The guys responsible for covering the Saints’ kickoffs and punts know they have to get to Hester as fast as they can, surround him, and be disciplined in their tackling.
“You can either not kick it to him, or if you kick it to him, you just have to be sound in your coverage,” safety Kevin Kaesviharn said. “You try and play the way you’ve been taught to play, the techniques you’ve been taught to play, and that should take care of it.
“I think in that situation, if you do kick it to him, you need to have everyone running to the ball because he’s a guy that can make you miss and obviously he’s got 11 touchdowns already, and it’s his second season. He’s pretty darn good.”

Saints win one, beat Seattle, end of world near

The Saints finally tasted victory Monday night, beating the Seattle Seahawks 28-19 after jumping out to a 21-0 lead in the first half. They sacked Matt Hasselbeck five times for losses totaling 29 yards.
"We wanted to come in and try to put some pressure on the quarterback, fly around, get more different looks," said safety Roman Harper, who had two sacks on blitzes.
New Orleans came into the game with one sack this season. To start the game, they sacked Hasselbeck on the Seahawks' first possession. Hollis Thomas dropped him for a 6-yard loss, setting up a punting situation on which the Saints scored on a fumble recovery by Pierre Thomas.
Early in the second half, the Saints sacked Hasselbeck on consecutive plays. Defensive tackle Brian Young sacked him on second down, and Harper sacked him on a third-down blitz. Later, Charles Grant got his first sack this season. Harper got another sack late in the fourth quarter.
"We just rushed," Grant said. "We did a little more blitzing to free up the rush."
As good as the game was, I still maintain that Reggie Bush is not an every-down back. Sure, he needs to be on the field every play, but 3rd and inches, 4th and 1, dude is not gonna be moving many piles forward and it showed. Late in the fourth quarter, Bush eclipsed the 100-yard rushing mark, but was stuff for losses on two consecutive run plays, taking his total to about 94 yards. In the fourth quarter, with the Saints driving for another scored he was stood up and fumbled near the goal line. On the next possession he ran the ball on consecutive plays and got about 3 yards total, to finish with 97 yards. They need a big back, someone to do what Deuce McAllister did. I like the move away from Devery Henderson also. Taking advantage of his first start for the Saints, Lance Moore scored his first career touchdown.
Moore, who started at wide receiver in place of Henderson, scored on a 7-yard end-around in the second quarter to give New Orleans a 21-0 lead.
"I had great blocking out there," Moore said, mentioning blocks by Marques Colston and Mike Karney. "There was nobody in my face."
Moore also caught three passes for 35 yards. His 20-yard reception on the Saints' second scoring drive gave New Orleans a first down at the Seattle 35.

Bush TD reception in '07 playoffs (in Chicago)

These players poised to take Vick's shine as NFL 'it' boy

With the sun about to set on the NFL's relationship with Michael Vick, a few ballers will benefit from his diminished shine:



Most notably, Reggie Bush who's top highlight thus far was probably this knockout hit in the playoffs last year; that being said, Bush will have to improve on his numbers across the board (Well, he did lead all rookies in receptions last year).

Payton Manning is already a posterchild for the NFL, but look for his likeness to increase dramatically as you hear less and less about Vick and all of the NFL commercials edit his footage out. It didn't hurt that ole "PayPay" won the Super Bowl last year as well. And it's no debate that dude has been the best quarterback in the league for the past 3 seasons now.

Vincent Young will certainly see his star rise as a result of the Vick debacle. The arguments over whether he was a taller, saavier, smarter Vick started even before he left college. The pressure is on this youngen to show the world that last year's inaugural season was not a fluke (even if that phantom sack against the N.Y. Giants that allowed Young to run for a 1st down on 4th down was).

And now for our Karma-loving fans:

'Sir Bush' comes correct at BET Awards

Little Big Man was reppin' the N.O. at the BET Awards Tuesday night in L.A. Word is the honeys couldn't get enough of the Black & Gold Nightmare after the show. And you know what? Ya girl, Kim Kardashian wasn't even around to throw salt. What up wit dat?

She's 26. He's 22.
He's a Saint.
She aint.
Okay, okay. That's not fair. Anyway, this is old news, but I wanted to have some fun with it. We all know Reggie Bush is crushing Kim Kardashian of Ray J. sex tape fame and of Nick Cannon fame (Honestly, who wants a woman after Nick Cannon?). Well, Bush and Kim met through Paris Hilton and Bush’s former USC teammate, Matt Leinart. But I just wanted to help my boy navigate through what is surely a "fairly worn" field. Woudn't want my boy to get "smurf-toe," ... or, I mean "turf-toe."