Head Coach Greg Schiano spoke with the media following his teams’ 41-0 shutout by the New Orleans Saints on Sunday. His team fell to 6-8 for the season. The following is a transcript of the press conference.   

Second straight week your offense has been shut out in the first half so what is going on with that side of the ball?
“Well, let me start with it starts with [and] it ends with – I did not get this team ready to go today for whatever that reason is. I did not believe that to be the case, but as we played out the game we went on the road [against] a divisional opponent and had a chance to go back and forth with them and have an effect. I should not say it is in vain, because they fought their guts out. It is just I did not do a good enough job in getting them ready, and we did not play well enough today against a team that you go on the road and do that – in their place – and that’s exactly what will happen. We got a lot of work to do between now and next week when we play the Rams. Have not been here in a long while, but I have been here before and I know what to do. We will fight back.”

Seems like there is a disconnect the past few weeks on the offense and what is going on there that you can tell without looking at the film?
“Again I will look at the film to know exactly, but there were some things. There were some miscommunication—did not see things the same way. And you need to be able to do that. That leads to I do not know if it was one or two of the turnovers. Again, that’s a fine between performing and not performing in this league and we did not today. That results with what you get.”

You could not get the running game going today either and what is going on there as well?
“Well right out of the gate it was not. We had some fours, some threes, a seven, but when you quickly fall behind I don’t know if the running game ever gets a fair shot. I have said that twice this season. You know so up until this point, it has been some tough losses, but they have been one score losses. This is a different animal. Today is a different animal and it will be addressed. We will do everything we can in power in the next six days to get things straightened and get them back on track. It is a lot of work to do.”

When you told team Wednesday to focus on the game and not college bowl games did you sense then that this team was starting to lose some focus?
“No. No I did not. Truth be told if I realized that was going to be something that was made the point, it was literally something that I was talking to about the team of just let’s focus in on the next hour and 40 minutes of practice and lock in every waking moment that we are out there. Don’t be standing on the side doing something else because maybe you can pick one thing up. It was just an urgency that you know coming off last week’s result that I felt compelled to say. I did not sense that. I did not sense that all week. I thought the guys prepared on and off the field. In meeting room, film study, practiced well, but certainly did not play well.”

Often times teams either get better or get worse and are you guys getting worse at this point?
“The result would say that we are. I think there are factors that go in there, but I don’t feel like we are. I feel like the understanding of what we are doing is getting better, but again it does not show on the field. So if I am someone who is not in the organization I would sit back and say ‘yes it is not getting better.’ We need to make sure that the arrow is going up here next week. It is going to be quite a challenge. I know this is a physical game you play on the turf. I am sure there will be guys that are bumped up. We got a lot of work ahead of us in a short period of time.”

What do you think is going on with your quarterback?
“You know what? The first half I thought the corner made a tremendous play on Dallas’ (Clark) interception and I think there was a miscommunication on the second one. After that some of them you know we are throwing it up trying to make something happen, but certainly we are not operating efficiently.  Like I told you guys before it is never as simple as hey let’s just change that and then we are all set. You got to unpeel the onion here and figure out what the issues are and simplify [it]. Whatever you got to do. Sometimes less is more. I don’t know if that is the case. We just got to look. We got to go through it. That’s what they pay us to do. That is our jobs as coaches and this is unacceptable. I know that. It is my name. [It is] the organizations name. We don’t do that so we got to get it remedied.”

Can you talk about the defense as well and at one point you were giving up an average of 10 yards per play?
“Yes, opening drive I thought they were on it. It was not any acreages there, it was just they out performed us. After that you get a stop then you turn it over. Then it gets to 10 so hanging in there then the red zone turnovers you should be okay. Look we did not score, but we are still on along field and when it gets to 24 nothing at halftime that is certainly not good enough defense.”

Coach Bryan Cox and Adam Hayward had to be separated on the sidelines what can you tell us about that?
“I am aware of that. I am not happy about it, but I do know that it has been resolved. I think you chalk it up to the heat of the moment. Guys are very passionate. Adam (Hayward) is a passionate player. Coach (Bryan) Cox is a passionate coach. I know they are very close. I think [it was] more of a family spat in a frustrating time than anything that I am deeply concerned about. I know they have already smoothed that over. Again, it is not what a football team that I am the head coach of I want to see. Certainly it has been addressed and it will be addressed and we will move forward from it. It need not happen again.”

Where do you go from here?
“Well we got to the airport and get on the plane and I watch the tape. Then we go home and I watch the tape. Then we meet with the players and we correct the errors and we go to work. This is an ongoing process. Although I am very frustrated by the result, I know what we are going to be. These are the times where you really got to lock in and lock together and go to work. That’s what we will do.”

–Mark Cook contributed to this report