The Buccaneers dropped to 6-6 on the season with a 31-23 loss to the Broncos in Denver on Sunday, and now face an uphill climb to make the playoffs this season. Following the game head coach Greg Schiano spoke to the media and said the Buccaneers made a number of mistakes that hurt the team's chances to notch their seventh win of the season. Below is a transcript of Schiano's press conference following Sunday's loss.

Looks like you controlled the tempo in the first half, but what was the difference in the second half?
“Well, I think there is a few – they were able to kind of run-pass it on us a little bit. It was really one drive. The one drive was the defensive pass interference which counts, but the drive after that that was the one that was the time when they moved the football on us and that can’t happen. But the reality is when we get hit and throw the pick-six that changes the complexion of the game. Now we are not able to run the football. We didn’t run it gangbusters in the first half, but we ran it. The way that you come out in the first half if you are able to be in a game where you can run it, often times you will end up running the fourth quarter and you are having production. We didn’t get to see that because we went down the way we did. My credit is to the Broncos. They did it. They made it happen.”

Peyton Manning has a great reputation for field vision and how often do you see that and sometimes you just have to tip your hat to him?
“That’s what I did. I told him it was a great play because you are looking at a first ballot Hall-of-Famer. There are reasons why, but I thought our guys played their guts out against him. They were looking forward to the challenge. I thought they played, [if] you told me he was going to have whatever he had, 240 yards passing and you hold him. That is not against him. Can’t get an interception those kinds of things. Always want to be better than that, but he has made a lot of people over the years look worse than that. I think our guys battled and just wasn’t enough today.”

Can you talk about Josh Freeman’s play today?
“I thought when he had ample time I thought he played well. I thought he had control of the game the entire time. There was one throw that I wish we had back and it is not the pick-six. The pick-six he had no control [over] it – he got hit. That wasn’t his throw that was a throw induced by a hit. There is one throw that I would want back, but other than that I thought he competed [and] he had good command of the game. Things didn’t go our way. You know we got pressured, but I think his fight [and] especially at the end of the game he comes back and just drills it right there to Mike (Williams). He throws one to Dallas (Clark) I mean to Vincent (Jackson). The one to Dallas (Clark) I wish we didn’t throw, but I thought he competed through some tough, tough competition and some tough hits.”

Can you talk about that tough sequence that Manning is so good at – not allowing you to substitute?
“You saw me doing it. Well I just don’t know, I probably don’t understand the rules. I didn’t know that when the team is over here that a fellow player on that team can be all the way down here. It is not like he threw a pass to himself and he went down and caught it or missed it there and had to jog back. The whole bit and the whole operation I am not sure of. That’s what I just got to get cleared up, but that’s what I was trying to clear up on the field. They watched it on the replay and they saw that the guy was still on so he is still on. The things you got to look at with hurry-up teams is, are they all set all the time when the ball snapped? But you can’t challenge that. You can only challenge the illegal participation. So there are a lot of things that went on in that play that you know happen when you go with no huddle teams. Again, that’s the way it goes.”

Can you talk about your running game again this week and what is happening there?
“Well, I am not sure you can judge it off today’s situation. You get behind like that [and] you don’t run it at all. I don’t know what we had at the half. We had 40 something [yards] – whatever it was, [but] like I said had we kept it in the same type of game that it was in the first half, I would like to see it. They are a good defense. They are top 10 in every category except red zone defense. It is not where you are going to go in there and rush for 250 yards. That is not happening. I think had we been able to stay in the game, we could have run the ball with some effect. In the National Football League you put up a 100 and something yards rushing and it is not a bad day. We didn’t get to see that. I think more than saying it wasn’t a good rushing effort, we had some plays that were called back for penalties on runs which were critical plays. Couple all that together and that’s why we lost.”

So you had a couple penalties at critical times?
“We did. I think we had too many. We had 10 penalties that were assessed and that’s too many. Some of them I had guys say to me, 'I don’t think I did anything.' Well, they are not calling them for their health. So we've got to watch them on tape and figure out what we need to improve on. That’s what we need to do. We need to go back. Forget all the other nonsense and just get better. How do we get better this week so we can be 1-0 at the end of the Eagles season? That’s what we have to lock in on. This one hurts. Guys put a lot into it.”

You mentioned the pick-six and was there one assignment that was not clean?
“I've got to see the tape before I comment on that. I am not really sure. I know he got hit. I think I know what happened, but I am going to hold judgment on that.”

Are you aware of Mike Sullivan’s interest in the Boston College head coaching job?
“Well, that kind of stuff I keep private with my assistant coaches and with our organization. If there is anything to that, that will come out the appropriate way. I don’t think this is the place to talk about that.”

You played two of the best teams in the league the last two weeks and where is this team at right now?
“I would rather be 8-4, right? This team is going to fight. We are going to go back to work. We got a good three-and-a-half hour plane ride to think about how we are going to do it and we are going to go do it. We got a lot of work ahead of us. It does not do us [any] good to talk about; we got to go do it. So that’s our job.”