Reggie Bush Sets NFL Record And It Aint Good
02 Jan, 2017
Reggie Bush did not receive a carry in his Bills’ 30-10 loss to the Jets in both teams’ season finales Sunday. That prevented him from doing anything about cementing an NFL mark that no running back would want to have.
Bush ended the season with minus-3 yards on 12 carries. That made him the first non-quarterback to rush for negative total yardage on at least 10 carries since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger.
Contrary to some reports, Bush is not the first NFL non-quarterback to accomplish the dubious feat. The Buffalo News dug up at least eight others (with the help of Pro Football Reference), but none since 1961, when Bears end-fullback John Adams racked up minus-2 yards on 14 carries.
“It’s tough,” the 31-year-old Bush had said Wednesday. “I just didn’t have a lot of opportunities this year. And so I’m not worried about that, finishing with negative yards or anything like that. If I had more opportunities, it would be a different story. But I didn’t have that.”
Bush’s downfall was his one carry last week against the Dolphins, a reverse play that netted him a loss of eight rushing yards. He appeared in 12 games for the Bills but was used sparingly behind LeSean McCoy and Mike Gillislee, also accumulating 90 yards on seven receptions.
A Heisman Trophy winner at Southern Cal and the No. 2 overall pick in the 2006 draft by the Saints, Bush had his last productive season in 2013, when he had 1,006 yards rushing and 506 yards receiving for the Lions. He appeared in five games for the 49ers last season as a backup before injuring his medial collateral ligament, and he was picked up by the Bills in August after Karlos Williams was hit with a four-game suspension (he was later released by Buffalo).
Bush’s struggles on the ground this season stood in stark contrast to his Bills teammates, who combined for the league’s best rushing attack going into Sunday. McCoy went into Week 17 with the NFL’s fourth-most rushing yards (1,257), and his mark of 5.5 yards per carry was second only among qualified players to that of Buffalo’s quarterback, Tyrod Taylor. Before the Jets game, Gillislee had rushed for 537 yards with a 6.2 average.
NYTimes.com
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