Marquis Colston Blames New Orleans Saints Offensive Struggles Last Season on Missing Darren Sproles

For years the New Orleans Saints have been one off the most productive and exciting offenses in the NFL. However, last year they appeared to be missing something at times; it seemed like they had a little trouble finishing drives off. If you thought so you are not alone. Longtime Saints wide receiver Marquis Colston says the team missed former running back Darren Sproles.

The Eagles certainly liked the spark he gave them out of the backfield.

via Reddit

Colston went on Ron Jaworski's radio show Thursday and talked about all sorts of things including what went wrong with the Saints last season--a lack of stability.

"...what we have been able to do on offense I think is a product of stability. Sean Payton has been there nine years. Drew has been there nine years. We've got other pieces that are there six, seven, eight, nine years. The stability that comes with that allows for us to make the adjustments and kind of go out and put together unique game plans knowing everyone is on the same page."

He went to talk about how he felt the team lost that stability when they lost several key veterans like Darren Sproles during the off-season.

"When you lose a guy that has produced at that high of a level and don't have an immediate replacement planned for him, you're going to struggle at times when those crucial situations when you know exactly the matchup you're going to get, the look you're going to get and what you're going to get out of that player. When you don't have that, and it's kind of an unknown, it kind of makes game planning that more difficult."

While the team may have looked disjointed at times last season they actually increased their offensive production from 2013. They scored a little less with 25.1 points in '14 and 25.9 in '13, but they actually generated more yards (6391 in '13 and 6582 in '14).

However, defensively the change was pretty significant. In '13 they only allowed 19 points a game, but that number jumped to 26.5 points a game. Yardage wise the jump was just as significant (4891 in '13 to 6144 in '14).

[NOLA]

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