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Bush: Dolphins were 'the only one' willing to let him carry load

Reggie Bush took a handoff Sunday against the Bills, burst through an opening and was gone.

By the time he slid into the end zone, the Dolphins running back had traveled 76 yards for a game-clinching score. It was the type of play people believed would be common place when Bush came out of USC in 2006.

Bush has had a disappointing NFL career when viewed through the prism of the Gale Sayers-like expectations foisted upon him. His five-year run in New Orleans had moments of greatness, but when the Saints took Mark Ingram with a first-round pick in April's draft, Bush knew it was time to move on.

Finding a team that believed he could be an every-down back proved a challenge, however. In fact, the Dolphins were his first and last option.

"This was the one," Bush told WAXY-AM in Miami on Wednesday. "This was the only one. I'd love to say, 'I had this option, I could have went to the 49ers, I could have went here, there.' I would love to sit here and say that I had all these options, but this was really the only option that was out there because pretty much all the other teams had their running back, their guy."

After a slow start that mirrored the 0-7 funk that ruined the Dolphins' season, Bush has turned it on, rushing for 100 yards or more in the past three weeks. He ran for a career-high 201 yards against the Bills and now is just 27 yards shy of his first 1,000-yard rushing campaign.

It's unknown if the Dolphins' next coach will give Bush the same opportunity that the erstwhile Tony Sparano did. Finishing the season healthy and productive can only help Bush's case, though.

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