Reggie Bush: Lions lack discipline
— -- Reggie Bush said Wednesday that the Detroit Lions' lack of discipline has hurt the team during a span in which it has lost four of five games and ceded control of its playoff destiny.
"It could be from penalties or it could be from turnovers or it could be from how we finished the games in fourth quarters," the running back said. "It's not one specific play or moment in a game. It's the total game. It's how we play."
Bush, however, pinned the team's discipline problems on the players and not coach Jim Schwartz, whom he called a "disciplinarian."
"It's not a coaches' thing. It's a players' thing. We can do a better job all across the board," Bush said. "As far as an offense standpoint, turn the ball over and that's the discipline issue, and that's something we have to correct, because obviously, as you see, it'll lose you games."
Schwartz said Wednesday that he wasn't aware of Bush's comments but that he doesn't believe the Lions have a discipline problem.
Receiver Nate Burleson agreed that the onus falls on the players to fix their issues.
"When you look at the games and look at the losses," he said, "you can almost always point out a few physical errors that we made, whether it is turning over the ball, making the big play on defense in there, special-teams breakdown.
"Those are physical errors on guys with the jerseys on. So I'm not going to sit there and say coaching needs to be better or Jim needs to do a better job. It's plain and simple. It's plays we need to make as a team, and we haven't made those plays. So people are going to find someone to blame, and if they want to blame somebody, blame me, blame us. I'm good with that."
The Lions (7-7) have dropped from first place to third in the NFC North as a result of their recent rough patch. Instead of being in control of their postseason fate, they must now beat the New York Giants at home and Minnesota Vikings on the road and also hope the Chicago Bears (8-6) and Green Bay Packers (7-6-1) both lose at least once to have a shot.
ESPN.com Lions reporter Michael Rothstein and information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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