| Andrew Perna. 16th November, 2008 - 7:16 pm
 A lot has been said about what Reggie Bush brings to the Saints on offense. His recent knee injury has allowed us to step back and take a look at exactly how the team performs offensively with, and without, the former Trojan on the field.
For starters, New Orleans is 3-4 in Bush’s seven games. They are now 2-1 without him after their 30-20 win over Kansas City on Sunday.
Bush may not be the pure running back that many thought he would be in the NFL, but he is as dynamic a player as you’ll see in the league today. His hands are among the best in all of football and his efforts on punt return duty have been second-to-none.
One would think that it would be hard to replace 660 yards from scrimmage and eight touchdowns, but in actuality, the Saints aren’t struggling to put points on the scoreboard with Bush hobbling around.
Per Game Offensive Statistics
With Bush, Without Bush
Total Yards: 402.3, 433.0
Passing Yards: 310.9, 340.3
Rushing Yards: 91.5, 92.6
Points: 25.6, 29.0
Time Of Possession: 31:01, 29:44
First Downs: 20, 25.0
Yards Per Pass: 8.5, 7.6
Yards Per Carry: 3.6, 4.7
Yards Per Punt Return: 23.8, None
As you can see, nearly every one of the team’s offensive statistics looks better without Bush in the lineup. In reality, every one has improved over the last three games. Time of possession and yards per punt return – a special teams stat – aren’t nearly as indicative of a team’s offensive production as the other eight numbers.
However, those numbers have been skewed slightly by the team’s offensive explosion against the Chargers in London a few weeks ago.
The Saints won that game 37-32, with Brees tallying 339 yards and three touchdowns on 30-for-41 passing. New Orleans also earned 28 first downs and scored five touchdowns in their first game sans Bush.
By simply looking at the team’s offensive splits, with and without Bush, it appears as though the Saints just might be better off with Kim Kardashian’s boy toy on the sidelines, but deeper analysis refutes that belief.
In the three games since Bush went down with a knee injury, New Orleans has faced San Diego, Atlanta and Kansas City.
The Falcons (23rd in total defense) ranked the highest among their recent opponents heading into Week 11, with the Chargers (26th) and Chiefs (32nd) slightly worse. All three teams were also in the bottom third of the league in pass defense, while only San Diego (12th) was in the top half of the NFL against the run entering Sunday’s action.
With Reggie in black-and-gold, the Saints faced four of the league’s top defensive units – the Buccaneers (7th), Redskins (4th), Vikings (6th), Panthers (8th) – in their first seven contests.
Assuming Bush is healthy enough to return in Week 12, it’ll be interesting to see if the Saints are able to continue posting strong offensive numbers against two of the league’s top defenses.
With the Packers and Buccaneers on the schedule in consecutive weeks, they will need Bush’s versatility to keeping putting points on the board. If they don’t, or even if they do, Reggie’s critics will point out how well New Orleans played without him present.
Doing so would be foolish, because the teams the Saints faced had more to do with their improved statistics than the absence of Bush. You just have to look a little deeper than the surface to realize that.
Andrew Perna is a Senior Writer for RealGM.com. Please feel free to contact him with comments or questions via e-mail – Andrew.Perna@RealGM.com. |
