Saints’ Reggie Bush Won’t Play Against Pittsburgh

Added on Oct 28, 2010 by Jason Kearney in

NFL

The New Orleans Saints haven’t exactly dominated in the early stages of their Superbowl defense–they’ve been very erratic and are lucky to be 4-3 at this stage of the season. Part of the problem has been injuries, and one significant player that has been ‘MIA’ is running back Reggie Bush. Bush fractured his right fibula in Week #2 but is nearing a return to action. He’ll be back in the lineup soon–but not yet. While doctors have cleared him to return to practice, Saints’ coach Sean Payton has ruled him out of Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

At this point, Bush has been limited to running and cardio work on a stationary bike. Payton says that they’re going to take things slow:

“We just keep taking it day to day and monitoring the progress, monitoring the next day after the workout and kind of go from there.“

The Saints have lost 3 of their last 5 games but have been hit hard by injuries–in addition to Bush, New Orleans has also been without running back Pierre Thomas, starting linebacker Scott Shanle, starting cornerbacks Tracy Porter and Jabari Greer, starting strong safety Roman Harper and starting defensive end Will Smith among others. While they don’t want to blame injuries on substandard performance, Shanle says it definitely plays a part:

“The disappointing part is you haven’t seen the complete team since Week 2 when Reggie went down. It absolutely has an effect. I mean, we do a good job of having guys who are backups come in and play good football, but there’s a reason why Reggie Bush is Reggie Bush and Pierre Thomas has done what he’s done.”

Quarterback Drew Brees remains optimistic that the Saints have yet to play their best football:

“We faced this last year, but just later on in the season. Obviously we’re facing it much earlier now.

“Are we more injured than other teams? Probably most of them. It’s allowed an opportunity for some young guys to step up and play pretty well. I think that will serve us well down the road, once we get everybody back.”