All Reggie Bush, All the Time
Saints will probably steal a page from Eagles and turn Reggie Bush loose Sunday vs. Giants

Chances are, when New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton was watching film of the Eagles' Brian Westbrook running all over the Giants last Sunday, he thought to himself, "Hey, we have one of those guys."

That guy is Reggie Bush. If you haven't heard of him, you need to get your TV fixed before Sunday, when the Saints arrive at Giants Stadium.
 
Perhaps Reggie Bush will be reprising the Westbrook role in an offensive game plan similar to the one Philadelphia used to carve up the Giants' defense.

"I wouldn't necessarily say (the Saints' offense is) exactly the same (as the Eagles' scheme), but this is a copycat league," Giants nose tackle Barry Cofield said. "Once one team has some success, you should probably expect to see it the next week.

"With the talent they have, there's a good chance we might see a lot of the same plays."

Those plays will probably feature Reggie Bush -- a runner as versatile and dangerous as Westbrook, who had 40 yards receiving and 97 yards on the ground against the Giants. Many of those rushing yards came on runs right up the middle past Cofield, tackle Fred Robbins and linebacker Antonio Pierce.

The Eagles aren't a power running team, but they were able to attack the middle of the Giant defense with quick-hit runs and a few misdirection plays out of spread formations. The Saints often use similar three-receiver sets on first and second down for short passes and runs to set up the big play.

Reggie Bush -- the ballyhooed rookie from Southern Cal who was the No. 2 pick in last April's draft -- has the potential to make a big play every time he touches the ball.

Though he's averaging only 3.2 yards per carry, he's been a threat as a receiver, catching 84 passes for 706 yards. Three weeks ago he took a screen pass, burst through a couple of 49ers and raced for a 74-yard gain. The next week he broke a couple of tackles on a 61-yard screen pass for a touchdown in the rout of the Cowboys.

"He certainly has some great natural vision and instincts," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "He can change pace, he can maneuver. He forces really good football players to be in bad positions to tackle."

Coughlin also said Reggie Bush is "a guy who looks like he's at top speed just like that, in one step," which means he'd be the perfect candidate to run the inside handoffs that sprung Westbrook. Oh, by the way, the Saints also have Deuce McAllister, who's actually their No. 1 running back. McAllister is 51 yards away from his fourth 1,000-yard season.

McAllister might be the perfect complement to Reggie Bush in two-back sets. Perhaps Payton will use the same flip plays and inside counters the Eagles ran with Correll Buckhalter and Westbrook -- even though Payton said he has used both of his running backs in the same backfield only 12-15 percent of the time.

"Some teams will defend it as a nickel set and treat Reggie Bush as a receiver," Payton said yesterday on a conference call with reporters. "You just have to be careful about what you're trying to accomplish when you do that. You have to know what you want to do from a run game or a pass game standpoint."

New Orleans might want to get the Giants in a nickel or dime defense and then run it up the gut like the Eagles did on Westbrook's 28-yard touchdown. Payton certainly saw that play. And he saw others where the Giants' linebackers tried to cover Westbrook and failed, like Antonio Pierce on an 11-yard catch in the first quarter.

There was also one play where defensive tackle William Joseph covered Westbrook because of a zone blitz that asked him to drop back. Naturally the 308-pound Joseph wasn't even close to the shifty Westbrook, who would have had a long reception if not for an underthrown ball.

Though Payton says his offense and the Eagles' scheme are "different from a structure standpoint," the Giants know he'll still employ similar strategies to create the same mismatches for Reggie Bush.

"They use him as a receiver, they use him as a runner, they use him as a punt returner. And in all of these capacities, obviously his outstanding natural ability comes forth," Coughlin said. "It gives you multiple circumstances where you have to be concerned with defending him."

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