Reggie Bush, Joique Bell's Instant Fantasy Reaction After Week 2

Playing running back against the Carolina Panthers: not a great experience. Owning one of two running backs in a timeshare who happen to be playing the Carolina Panthers in a given week: awful, degrading experience that comes with a mop to clean your tears and a special consolation Hallmark card.    

Bell and Bush combined for just 62 rushing yards on 16 carries in Sunday's 24-7 loss in Carolina, with the former's fantasy value coming entirely in garbage time. Bell got the majority of the work, finishing with 97 total yards on 16 touches (10 carries, six receptions). He was the recipient of four passes on the Lions' final drive.

His third-quarter run of 12 yards was the long of the day for Detroit, which could not get anything substantive going offensively. The Lions turned the ball over three times, one coming by the hand of Matthew Stafford and two via fumble.

Bell coughed the ball up deep inside Carolina territory in the first quarter—a mistake that helped shift the momentum of a 0-0 game that was already trending the Panthers' way. Bush was oddly relegated to secondary status within the offense. Despite an obvious need for an explosive play, his appearances were sporadic as coach Jim Caldwell seemed to favor Bell.

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Bush, who has been dealing with a knee injury and struggled in the ground game last week, had 26 yards on six carries. He added six yards on two receptions, as Panthers defenders swarmed to the ball and limited yards after the catch all game.

It's difficult to tell what any of this means. Carolina, despite all the pessimism surrounding its playoff status coming into 2014, has one of the NFL's best defenses. The first two weeks of the season have made that much clear. Shutting down Josh McCown and the Buccaneers didn't move the needle much, but Sunday was all the proof anyone needed to see they're legit.

What's more, the Lions are a bad running team. They were last week, just as they were in 2013. Football Outsiders ranked Detroit's rushing game 27th a season ago, a ranking matched in the 2014 DVOA numbers after a one-week sample. When a bad rushing offense takes on a good rushing defense, bad things tend to happen in fantasy terms.

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Bell and Bush aren't valuable because they're elite rushers; they're valuable for their activity in the passing game. Carolina rendering that irrelevant is more a function of the matchup than anything Bell or Bush did wrong. Caldwell's offense features plenty of check-down passing to backs, and the pair are capable receivers out of the backfield.

These weeks are going to happen. It's just a reality of timeshares. Some weeks the pie is going to be big enough for both to eat. Sometimes the production is going to be sliced so thin that both are borderline unplayable.

The only thing that's been illuminated over the past couple weeks is that Bell is probably the back you'd rather have. He's received more carries in both games thus far and is the closest thing the Lions have to a goal-line back.

But if Sunday proved anything, it's that Detroit's running backs are going to be the very definition of high variance this season.

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