Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

ATLANTA — Saints wide receiver Marques Colston fixated his eyes on the ground and his traveling bag as he packed his belongings in the visitors’ locker room of the Georgia Dome.

Two sets of reporters approached the veteran in an effort to see what Colston might say about a nightmare sequence — one in which he dropped a pass and lost a fumble in back-to-back plays in overtime of a 37-34 loss for the Saints (0-1) to the Atlanta Falcons (1-0). Matt Bryant kicked a 52-yard field goal three plays after Atlanta linebacker Joplo Bartu recovered Colston’s fumble.

But Colston politely declined to speak with the first group of journalists. He soon silently walked away from a second one and headed out of view.

Less reluctant to talk about the Saints’ final gut-wrenching possession were some of the colleagues he’s known since arriving in New Orleans as a seventh-round draft choice. And to a man, they refused to let anyone suggest Colston was at fault for the outcome of a disappointing season opener.

“He’s won a lot of games for us,” Saints coach Sean Payton said. “And when you get in overtime, it can appear to be one play, but there are a series of plays throughout the course of a game.”


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Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

Colson didn't give up almost five hundred passing yards but he did have that fumble and a few drops. He didn't lose it but he could've won the damn thing.

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

Hmm 60 minutes of play time and only a fool will narrow it down to 1 play.

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

Unless that players name is Roman Harper

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

I love Marques Colston but he is to blame. Who cares how they got there? The Saints have a much greater chance of winning if he doesn't fumble.

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

Colston is not a fool.


Fariweather fandom, we won't go there.

Colston was stripped of the ball there. Yeah, maybe he did not have it tucked tight enough. Maybe not. Routine drill of his. Also , routine drill of Saints and Falcons, any team, is to strip that ball. ATlFal did.

With a loss like this, there were many mistakes BEFORE it got to that crucial point and OT.

Brees, intercept? It happens. Did that cost the game? No.

Turnovers happen. They happen with both teams.


Defense really costed the game. Defense is better than the punished year, but defense STILL lacks that power. Force.

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

Settling for 3's early instead of 7's came back to haunt them. Hey Ryan had the game of his life and they only beat the Saints 3 in OT on a 50yd+ FG at home, not worried.

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

I am most upset that they went out of bounds on several plays on that last drive instead of taking more time off that clock. How in the earth can they not be aware of how much time was left on that clock.

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

How? We put up over 30 points in regulation. When your offense puts up 30 points there is no reason in hell the game should even go into overtime. Our defense was horrid. Terrible. If it wasn't for them the game would not have come down to one or two plays. Yea Colston blew two plays that may have helped us win the game in spite of our ****ty defense but its not what lost the game. You cannot rely on your offense to continually bail out your defense. That's not their job. Their job is to put up points, which they did. Our defense failed to stop them from scoring less than 34 points. That's atrocious.

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

Really? And what would the Saints chances of winning have been if the defense had done its job?

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

all those that lost that game please step forward.

the entire defense better step up and they better be led by Rob and his staff.

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

There's is no one to blame. You win as a team, you loss as a team. Thats it.

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

which team came in with a top 5 defense? the defense lost this game. blame the offense for a score leaving 20 seconds before the half, and a minute and 20 seconds to win it all. WHICH TEAM HAD TOP 5 DEFENSE?

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

The defence was poor today but as has already been stated we really should have got the ball in the endzone on the first and second scoring drives. Two field goals just isn't good enough, especially when playing in Atlanta!

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

The motto of the New Orleans Saints defense

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

We left 21 points off the board settling for 2 field goals and the pick drew threw in the red zone

D needs to come out swinging, if they aren't physical we don't stand a chance in being a playoff team this year

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

Maybe a loss will give us that killer attitude..........Don't tell Godhell that we have a killer attitude. :roll:

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

I agree, unless we start talking about Hartley, lol.

Of course, I guess it could be argued that having to kick a chip shot game winner, let's say for example against Atlanta, shouldn't even be a issue if the team had scored on other drives.

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

I still can't understand how people can blame one person or one play that changed that game...

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

LOL, we have some issues.

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

Colston fumbled the ball in Saints territory. That's how.
Of course the defense was awful. It's easy to spew the "it's a team sport" stuff but Colston fumbled the ball in Saints territory. It doesn't get much easier for a team to win a game when the ball is quite literally handed to them on the defenses' side of the field.

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

and the redzone interception, 2 fieldgoals that would have been better as TD's didn't matter?
Had any 1 of those 3 been different then OT is a moot point and so is the 1 fumble from Colston

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

His teammates are right.

600 yards given up? There's your blame.

Re: Saints wide receiver Marques Colston not to blame for loss, teammates say
 

For whatever reason, we tend to split the series with the Falcons during a year. Would it have been nice to win? Of course. Does it make a difference that we lost? Not really. If we end up going 15-1, and winning the Super Bowl, would anyone care about this loss? Probably not. We moved the ball pretty much at will, but had some errors here and there. Things will get cleaned up. Time to focus on Cleveland. #WhoDat