BAGSHOT, England -- It has been almost half the season already, but Reggie Bush insists the Detroit Lions are still learning.
When trying to understand why a running game featuring two backs who were considered among the best tandems in the NFL a year ago have been moving in neutral, he looked at the new scheme the Lions are putting in and the time it is taking to learn it.
The learning process and struggles with a running game that could take more of a hit if right tackle LaAdrian Waddle misses time with his concussion, is a bit of an enigma. It won’t help, either, that the Lions’ top three tight ends all didn’t practice Wednesday due to injury.
“It’s getting into a rhythm, into a flow with this new offensive system,” Bush said. “We’re still kind of learning and I’m not at all worried. I wouldn’t want to run behind any other offensive line, just going back to what we did last year, we have the guys here.
“We have what it takes to get it done and it’s just a matter of getting into a rhythm. We’ve had some injuries, too, and that’s obviously hurt us a little bit. We’re getting there. Nobody is worried, it’s not a time to panic, but it is a time for a sense of urgency.”
It may not be a worry, but it should be a viable concern.
A season ago, the Lions had a 1,000-yard rusher in Bush, had Joique Bell with over 500 yards rushing and had numbers in the middle of the pack, mostly because both Bush and Bell were used as receiving threats as well.
Both were averaging at least 3.9 yards a rush (Bush 4.5, Bell 3.9) and were talked about as one of the top tandems in the NFL.
This season, though, they have plummeted. Neither Bush (3.5) nor Bell (3.3) have come close to Jim Caldwell’s goal of four yards a carry. And as a rushing offense, they have been unable to move the ball. Detroit is ranked No. 31 in the NFL in rushing yards a game (82.43) and yards per rush (3.12).
The Lions are also tied for 28th in first downs rushing, with 31, although of the four teams they are tied or ahead of, three have winning records, including Denver.
“The scheme is good,” center Dominic Raiola said. “It’s a matter of one person breaking down here or one person breaking down here. Especially in the run game, all six have to go. We just have to be in sync. No one can go rogue. No one can go off schedule.
“We have to be on schedule all the time for it to go.”
The running issues are more than just the offensive line, though. With the new offensive scheme brought in by Joe Lombardi, some of the blocks have changed from what they were a season ago in both the run game and the screen game -- both of which involve the running backs heavily.
Raiola wouldn’t say exactly what has changed in the way they block this year, only that there are differences.
And Caldwell isn’t blaming one area of the offense when it comes to the Lions’ run struggles. He’s looking at the whole operation of it.
“We just haven’t been as consistent as we’d like,” Caldwell said. “We haven’t blocked consistently well enough. We haven’t run it consistently well enough with the ball in our hands. There’s a number of different things.
“The blocking includes not only linemen, not only tight ends, the lead back or whomever it might be, but then also on the flanks as well, the receiving corps. So all of it, we’re constantly in an evaluation mode with trying to find out what suits us best in terms of what we do best. That’s been the struggle, so we just have to stay after it.”