Chris Mortensen is reporting that Saints running back Reggie Bush has a partially torn PCL in his left knee and will probably miss the rest of the season. Sources say Bush hurt the knee several weeks ago against Jacksonville, but opted to continue playing in spite of it. Now it has deteriorated to the point where Bush is no longer able to go. The injury reportedly will not require surgery, but will heal with rest and rehabilitation.

Bush, like the Saints themselves, has been a big disappointment this year. The highly-touted second-year man was supposed to come into his own in 2007 as an all-around threat, but he has so far managed only 581 rush yards, and despite catching 73 balls has gained only 417 yards receiving and scored just two receiving touchdowns. Bush had a great chance to accumulate bigger numbers when Duce McAllister went down for the season, but those numbers haven't come. Of course, we now know that he was hurt for a lot of that time, so that puts his struggles in a little different perspective.

You have to wonder, now, just how wise was it for Sean Payton to let Bush keep playing in spite of this injury. I know the Saints, up until this last weekend, were in the thick of the playoff race, but at the same time, Bush is a guy you have a lot invested in, and if there's a chance of him doing greater damage to his knee you have to seriously consider forgetting about your already-flimsy playoff hopes and just shut the guy down. Bush obviously wanted to keep playing, which speaks well of him from a toughness stand-point, but as we've seen before, sometimes the player isn't the best judge of those things.

Payton, it seems to me, has lost a little of the whiz-kid glow he attained after the Saints' miracle 2006. The team has not looked good for a lot of this season, and now we've seen Payton make some questionable decisions both in how he dealt with the Bush injury, and in certain game situations (e.g. the ill-advised gadget play that helped them lose the Tampa Bay game). I don't want to say that Payton bought into his own hype too much, and started thinking he could get away with anything. All I'm saying is that, undoubtedly, his team took a step back this year, and as much credit as he got for last season's success, that's how much blame he deserves for the 2007 Saints not living up to expectations.