[ESPN] Bush turned pro after assurance of No. 1 pick

They got more carries then Bush in college. They ended up workhorse backs in the pros. Do you really remember how good the Oklahoma State line was compared to USC's? I certainly don't. Bush was used at many different positions and had another talented guy on the same team with him (a la Barry Sanders and Thurman Thomas). It made sense to use them both.

 

I'm not sure that Sanders played much until Thomas left.

 

Every time Bush was on the field UT keyed on him though. You would see them move 9 guys into the box. They were determined not to let him beat them. LenDale White wasn't so effective because he's a better back then Bush ( I know nobody is saying that it's just part of my point) it's because Texas wasn't going to get beat by Leinart when Bush was out. UT game planned well. If LenDale White beats you, hats off to USC. You knew Leinart was going to throw for solid yardage so you live with that. In the NFL, defenses won't be able to put 9 guys in the box on Bush when you have a guy like Andre Johnson on the outside. If they do, you'll see nnumbers from our receivers like Gates, McCardell and Herman Moore (Lions WR). That's what a guy like Bush does. I personally think he can get 15-20 carries and line up at receiver 7-13 times. That's fine by me.

USC has a bas defense. We all knew that going in. That takes nothing away from what Young did but they simply didn't have the team speed to stop him. Texas had a defesnse 10 times as good as USC. How many USC defenders would start for that UT team...2 -3 maybe.

What i think people are failing to realize is that everyone is saying Bush had an off game, he was shut down, ect and he still had over 220 yds of total offense , a td and averaged over 6 yds a carry. That's pretty good for being keyed on, "shut down", and not getting as many touches as normal. I'll take those numbers any day of the week.

 

I think inexperience, not team speed was SC's problem.

 

He didn't. I'm just saying USC had the best of both worlds and used it to their advantage. White is a first round talent and is better inside and Bush is a gamebreaker who's better outside. Why not use both? If Bush had had 25 carries who knows what his numbers would have been.

 

They played in plenty of big games that season so even though inexperience played a role, it was clear they lacked team speed on defense.

 

Like I said, I'm not trying to take anything away from Bush, my point is that Reggie can be stopped, and with a pretty simple game plan as well.

You're right, he still had great numbers (even though I don't like adding in kick returns to total offense since you usually get 15 yards w/o getting touched to start), but I think we can all admit that he didn't have the IMPACT on the game that everyone thought he would.

Texas' defense was keying in on Bush all night like you said, in the NFL, this won't have to happen, especially if you know where he likes to run the ball.

 

i don't know how reggie bush will be in the pros. i don't know.


i know you can't just run the ball around the end in the NFL, though. you'll get clobbered.


and i know i didn't see reggie driving between the tackles much in college...that was left for someone else.

thus...uncertainty.

 

Anyone can be stopped on any given night with the right game plan.

I don't put that much stock in kick returns either but it's part of his total package. I agree, he didn't play as well as everyone expected.

Most speed back like to run to the outside first. In reality though, it's all about hitting holes. Denver's big runs from ( TD, Anderson, Gary, Griffin, Bell, ect) came from pitches to the outside and patient running. The same goes for KC with Priest and LJ. Obviously LJ, TD and Anderson are good inside runners but there's no way to tell how good Bush can be until we see him in the pros. He's going to be working with LT every offseason from now on so I'm sure they will refine his weakness's. Every player has them.

 

I think Bush was a pretty avg KR. I'm sure he has potential to improve though.

 

It won't matter if we pick him because Mathis has that job locked up. can you imagine splitting out Bush, Johnson and Mathis (if he would learn how to catch)? One of those guys would be open by 5-10 yards.

 

Absolutely. If I was as fast as Bush, I would be doing the same. If you can consistenly beat defenses to the sideline, why wouldn't you do it.

But that doesn't mean it's necessarily a good thing. I also wouldn't classify Bush as a patient runner. He loves using his speed and cuts it out every chance he gets, even if the hole is still there. I've seen a ton of plays where it seems Bush is suppose to run straight up the guy but ends up cutting it out, whether this is by system or by player, Bush will have to learn to how to run up the gut. I'm not saying he won't be able to, but its something he hasn't shown yet.

 

There's no question Bush won't be able to cut everything to the outside in the pros. I'm sure he knows that and will work on it. I just liked the fact that he is so multi talented and is going to be working with LT every summer. The importance of that is very signifigant in my eyes. He's been doing it since last season so it shows not only a willingness to learn and get better but also to work hard. Work ethic is very important to me when drafting a guy.

In the end I just think he helps the team more then Young. We need more game breakers and ton more team speed on offense. DD just doesn't bring that. He's solid but he's never going to elite or great. He'll always be good and unfortunately it seems like he'll always be hurt for at least 2 games. Carr still has a chance to be elite and great. We really haven't given him a chance to live up to his full potential and even the biggest carr haters out there have to agree that he's shown signs that he can make every throw (and he's mobile).

 

One thing I like about Bush is his quickness and elusiveness in open field. I think where that translates the best into the Texans offense would be on any dump off passes that Carr makes to him, as he does Dominick Davis right now. The difference is, while DDavis can break a tackle or two and turn this 4-5 yards dumps into 7-8 yards, Bush will go from 0-60 in 1 second and could break a great deal of them for much bigger yardage. I don't think we as Texans fans would complain nearly as much about the "Is AJ open? No? Pass to Dominick" type passing game if it was Bush that was on the receiving end.

When I think about stuff like that, starts to get me excited about Bush. But then I start thinking about what Young did in the NC game and I get excited about him. That's the cool thing about this draft, people. No matter which guy we pick, he will most likely be the most explosive, electric player on the field (for the Texans) EVERY week. I, for one, can't wait.

 

If you look at the game, you'll see that 2 of Reggie's 3 big plays were suspect.

On the first, the Texas defenders all rushed by Bush leaving him alone for a quasi-screen that led to lots of yardage and an ill-advised lateral. If one Texas defender had stayed with him instead of rushing towards ML, he probably would have been tackled as soon as he caught the ball. Not many pro defenses are going to leave him alone in that situation... they'd be lying low and smelling pick or bone-crushing hit the whole way. (In retrospect, it's good this play turned out the way it did.)

The second play in question was the shuffle pass during USC's last drive. If Texas isn't in a Prevent to try and keep the Trojans out of field goal range, it's doubtful he gets that many yards. I will say that it was a damn good play call and I was glad he went out of bounds instead of turning it towards midfield... it looked like he could have gotten more yards if he had so chosen.

The TD run was impressive, but I think the notion that, in the NFL, he will have to make it through the D-line before he can turn on the jets for big yardage is generally true. Not to say he won't bust some on the outside, but it will be tougher.

 

That's exactly what excites me about having him on the team. Also, while team will leave Davis in open space and devote another guy to cover receivers they won't be doing that very much with Bush. I like the fact that you can line him up in the backfield and then flank him out with Andre. That leaves a safety covering him or the defense calling a time out. I just see him doing for our offense what Faulk did for the Rams. I am convinced Andre is a superstar and although I know we don't have an Isaac Bruce at the #2 (it's a need I think we'll address) we do have a hakim at the #3 (mathis). We also have Derrick Armstrong (underrated) who can be like Proehl. Warner was solid and so is Bulger but I'm not convinced that they are better then David carr at all. I think they actually proved that if you put an offense that explosive around a QB anything can happen.

I agree. It's why I don't want to trade out of the pick. If Tony Banks was out starter I'd be much more open to picking Young but I'll stick with carr until I think he gets a fair shot. If we pick Young, I'll be fine with that too. I just think Bush fits a lot better (plus we don't have to wait and then trade Carr and watch him blossom somewhere else).

 

Actually, I disagree with most of your post. You can't just say, "if they had left one defender there he would have been tackled immediately". How many guys can bring down Reggie one on one? Secondly, there will be a lot more blitz packages in the NFL then UT came with so Reggie will have a shot at a lot of big plays off screens and single coverage.

It will be tougher for Reggie just like it will be tougher for Vince. Every single player who enters the draft is going to have to adjust to the speed of the NFL. In all reality, Young and Leinart have the hardest positions to adjust to.

 

Really, Bush not turning that run back upfield would have to be attributed to Pete Carrol's dumb ass. Were his team prepared for the inevitable 2 point conversion that everyone knew was coming on the previous TD by Texas, then he would have had a timeout left and Bush could have afforded to get tackled in bounds on that last shuffle pass. But since he had to make sure he got out of bounds, he had to hug the line. I still think that play would have resulted in a TD if he didn't have to worry about the clock.

 

Cosigned.

 

Not to derail the discussion, but please stop including meaningless return yards to buttress your argument. As has been mentioned in the past, even the worst kickoff returners can get like 15-20 yards a pop because there are no defenders to elude when you first catch the ball.

He was very mediocre returning kickoffs in that game. Check out Bush's yds/return. Compare Bush's average against the others in the game and to the 2005 NFL kickoff return leaders. You'd expect a #1 pick to at least be above average, or better than his peers.