No matter what his coaches say, Reggie Bush sees his stint on the sideline last Sunday as a benching and said Tuesday it was the first time it has happened to him — ever.

After Bush’s fumble on the Dolphins’ second series against the Titans, the running back was removed from the game and didn’t reenter until after halftime.

Although his coaches have since downplayed his time spent on the bench, Bush reiterated Tuesday that he saw the move as performance-based.

“You just take it with a grain of salt [and] find a way to fix it,” said Bush, who didn’t get another official carry after the fumble Sunday. “At the end of the day, the only thing I can control is fumbling the football. I know how to control that.”

Bush added: “I’ve bounced back before. I’ll bounce back again, and we’ll be OK.”

Money player

Each week presents a new reason to ask Richie Incognito about his reputation as a dirty player.

On Sunday, he did little to shed the label, earning an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty for driving Colin McCarthy into the turf after the play had ended.

Incognito said that, as of Tuesday afternoon, he had not been fined for the hit and wasn’t sure if he would.

When asked to estimate how much he has doled out in fines in his career, Incognito was at a loss.

“Quite a bit,” he said.

In the six figures?

“At least,” he added before saying the figure wasn’t in the millions.

Under pressure

Game-time temperatures Thursday should be near freezing in Orchard Park, N.Y., but the heat is definitely on in Upstate New York.

The Bills are 3-6 and face long odds to make the playoffs. In recent weeks, Bills general manager Buddy Nix has said that he had actually wanted to draft a quarterback in April (even though the team had invested $10 million guaranteed in Ryan Fitzpatrick), but that coach Chan Gailey deserves another season, regardless of how the rest of 2012 goes.

Defensive coordinator Dave Wannstedt, the former Dolphins head coach, doesn’t appear so safe, however.

“Whether you’re a player or a coach or whatever you are, you’ve got to produce,” Gailey said. “If you don’t produce, they find somebody else.”

This and that

•  Ryan Tannehill played the past two weeks on a deeply bruised knee that had not fully healed, he revealed Tuesday. “I’m just starting to get back to healthy, back to 100 percent,” said Tannehill, who still wears a brace on his injured left leg in practice.

• Coach Joe Philbin has heard from most everybody about the Dolphins’ 37-3 loss to Tennessee, including his 83-year-old mother, Mary.

“She was asking me if the players were upset with themselves,” Philbin said. “Hopefully, we all are.”

• Wide receiver Davone Bess was excused from practice Tuesday with a personal, non-football issue.

• If you live in Palm Beach County and don’t have NFL Network, you’re out of luck Thursday. Games shown on cable nationally are usually shown on free TV in home markets (WBFS-My33 will carry Dolphins-Bills in Miami-Dade and Broward), but no station has the rights in Palm Beach.