In his after game press conference Greg Schiano spoke about the play of his quarterback and what happened in this loss to the Rams. The following is a transcript of his press conference. 

What is your general feeling about this one?
“Well, certainly disappointing. As you look at the game it is a case where St. Louis took advantage of their opportunities and we had a lot of missed opportunities. We had plenty of chances to win the game. We played our cleanest game penalty free. We had one penalty for I think, five yards. You cannot turn the ball over. That is what it boils down to in this league. People are too good. You turn it over and it is going to be awfully hard to win games. Does it happen sometimes? Yes, you can overcome it sometimes. We had 36 minutes of time of possession. It is what it is.”

Can you talk about Josh Freeman’s interceptions today and making those mistakes four years in?
“Well, I cannot live in a vacuum. I certainly will examine all those things. Coming off the sidelines [is] probably the worst time to discuss that with emotion and everything else. I will examine him. I and coach Sullivan [and] coach Turner will look at it. Certainly there were some things throughout the game you thought that is not what we want to do, but until you look and make sure why, you know. Got to protect a little better. I thought they did a good job with their pass rush and you are right when you are falling backward that is a tough time especially on the length of that pass. We got to examine all that stuff. At the end of the day I know we are not going to win turning the ball over like that. We have one week to get better and go try to end this thing on the right note. The way we practiced this week I was extremely confident that we would come play and we did. We did a lot of things a lot better than what we had done. Which is sad because it is all for not when you turn the football over. We have to have to have to make improvement there. Earlier in the year we were great at ball security and great at taking it away. That is how we won football games. That has not been the case as of late. There is no one, but me. That falls on me. It is the number one job of a football team is to not turn the ball over and to get the ball taken away. If that’s the number one job, I am the head coach and it is not getting done, that is my fault.”

What happened on the first play in the second half? 
“That was a shame. Without getting into guys and things it was a mistake that [was] a valuable lesson learned. Unfortunately it was an 80-yard play. I think they had 285 yards total offense and 80 of it was on that play. The other thing is you have a chance to get them down on the 30 or whatever yard line to my right wherever it was and we did not get them down. That is like maybe even worse, right? But that’s the way it happened today. Other than that there were some really good things defensively. Again, none of it matters when you turn the football over and you don’t take it away enough. If you are going to have a four or five turnover game you better match it. Otherwise the thing quickly tilts out of favor and even with all that said there are a couple chances to get that ball in who knows.”

You have one game left and you see how this team has turned the ball over on offense as a fan do you think this team is closer to winning consistently now than it was at start of season?
“That’s more of an after week where I will look at the whole season and say, okay here is where we started [and] here is where we finished. The ups and downs of it all. Right now I am not going to get into where we stack up. I do say this to our fans we have good players in this program. We are going to get more. We are moving forward and we got to find a way to win this game next week. We got banged up today. I am anxious to get the injury report. E.J. Biggers early in the game – out. Jeremy Zuttah late in the game – out. We got to figure out where we are and that’s our job. That is my job. Mark (Dominik) and I will sit down and figure out how we are going to get the best team we can put on the field for that final week.”

Do you have a feeling of what has changed since started 6-4 and everything was positive and then five weeks later seems like the team has fallen backward?
“Well, three of the five I would not say that. Three of the five I would say flip a coin and you win it or lose it and then we are all sitting here talking about okay we lost a couple at the end, but we are in the playoffs and that’s great. But that did not happen. We lost those three that were close football games. These last two there is enough here to say we got to hit it and get it this week because this is not the way you win football games [by] turning the ball over. That is for sure.”

Josh Freeman made a couple plays today, but at the end of the day it seemed like he was trying to force some plays and have you seen him try to do too much?
“I don’t know. Here is what I think. When he makes those plays they are spectacular. Everybody [says] wow what a great play. When he doesn’t now he is forcing it. Really that’s what it turns into. We are in a result driven business and when it works then it is a great play and when it doesn’t work is he pressing? Is he trying too hard?  Somewhere in between. When you make it [and] when you don’t make it, it is somewhere in between. I think calculated risk taking is something that is a huge component of quality quarterback play. You need to know this is a risk we are willing to take and this is a risk we are not. Again, I will put it on me. Certainly we have to get that communicated better because we have to make and we have done it. It is not like, oh I hope it happens some day. It has already happened. We got to have it. Keep coming back to this word consistency. We have to do it because there are some plays out there today that are outstanding offensive football plays. It doesn’t matter when you sprinkle them in with the turnovers.”

Some plays in the red zone, in one series where Josh Freeman tried to run a sneak, was that on him or did he get the green light ,explain that series and another ball was thrown out?
“I am mad at myself on that one. I thought definitely we would catch them before they were ready. I don’t know what happened. The ball went out of bounds. I don’t know if they put a kicking ball in because they felt we were kicking a field goal. I don’t know, but there was no football. So now everybody is waiting and waiting. I should have ran down there and called a time out and huddled up and called a different play. Once they are ready for the sneak it is swimming upstream. They are all bottled in there. I kick myself in the rear end for that one. I think. Yes.”

Are concerned at this point with the play of Josh Freeman these past two weeks?
“I think as a coach when you don’t win and you turn the ball over you are concerned about everything. I am paid to win games. We have lost five straight. So yes I am concerned, but it is not just about Josh Freeman. Starts with Greg Schiano and goes all the way through the organization. I am concerned because we have not been able to get it done and I am the head coach. So I got to keep going back and looking at it. I just ask our fans to hang in there and I know that it has been a while around here but this group of guys we will get it straightened out. It is a great place to coach and to play and to be a fan. We got to get it back to being great.”