Opening comments ...
"After watching the tape, it was very much like I felt after the game. It was two teams that played a tremendously clean football game, and usually when that happens you know it becomes a field position battle. Teams weren't making the critical error, and usually that means it comes down to third-down efficiency and explosive plays. And it was really a tale of two halves for us. Starting offensively, in the first half we're 2-of-8 -- 25 percent -- on third down and it had a lot to do with what we were doing on first and second down. You look up and we have a third-and-11, and third-and-13, a third-and-15 and against that defense that's where their home is, especially with their pass rush. Then in the second half you look and we're 75 percent on third down, a lot more third-and-manageable. I thought our first-down efficiency was a lot better, our tempo was a lot better and our rhythm was a lot better in the second half.
"Defensively, exact opposite. I thought for basically a quarter and a half of ball I thought we played really good football, especially on third down. We ended up being 3 of 7 coming out of the first half and then 6 of 10 in the second half. The explosive plays we didn't really garner until the second half when they did a nice job of producing them in the run game. Tony [Jones Jr.] has a 43-yard run and then Lenzy has a reverse for 51 that leads to a touchdown. So I thought that was probably the difference the in the game -- the third downs and the explosive plays.
"Positives coming out of this game, I love our guys' mental toughness. I love how they stay in the fight at all times, and that's what they'll continue to do and we'll all do. We've got a tremendous opportunity ahead of us. We control our own destiny in our league and have a chance to win a Pac-12 title and go to a Rose Bowl, and to be able to do that we've got to focus on the moment right now, which is Arizona. Focus on executing our systems with great fundamentals and technique.
On injuries ...
"There was a bunch of kids that I just thought were warriors. They suffered injuries in the game and went back out there and battled, and EA was one of those guys. Has an ankle sprain, taped it up, was able to finish the game out, so we'll see where he's at on Tuesday. Greg Johnson suffered a shoulder injury that pulled him out. Olaijah Griffin's back acted up again and that pulled him from the game. Then ITS suffered an ankle sprain that he was able to get back in and at least finish the game. We'll see where that's at. Vavae's knee has finally gotten to a point with the swelling that medically they're going to go ahead and clean it out. He'll have surgery on Tuesday on the knee and I don't have a timetable for when he'll be back with that."
On whether team needs to find a spark after losing three of four ...
"We're sitting here at 3-3 with a really talented football team in my opinion. I think were at least as good as each and every team that we play down the stretch here and [we've] got at tremendous opportunity within league to go try to win six games and try to get back to Santa Clara. I think the biggest thing for us after watching last night's tape was our fundamentals and technique and some of our assignments, just being able to spill a counter play, getting out of a gap where a quarterback draw happens. Being able to diagnose being hot in a protection. It's little things that we're going to have to clean up over this week. The one thing like I said, I love this team's fight and I love where they're at. They've beaten a top-10 team. I thought we had the opportunity to put ourselves in position to beat another one last night and just fell a little short. But this team has tremendous fight and they'll be ready for the next one."
On adjusting the RB rotation in light of Malepeai's injury ...
"We've been very fortunate here to garner a lot of talented backs, Vavae being one of them. Stephen Carr, Markese [Stepp] and we have Quincy Jountti as well as Kenan Christon. So the beautiful thing about the new rule is with four games and still being able to redshirt is it allows you to play some freshmen and still have the decision whether you redshirt them or not and Kenan's in that position. So we still have a bunch of talented backs. Vavae's a warrior and has been dealing with a sore knee and really fighting through it for his team and it's just gotten to the point where it's gotten too sore so we're going to go ahead and take care of it now. The good fortune is we've still got a lot of talented backs on this team."
On opposing defenses doing things against USC that they don't normally show ...
"You know, I think anytime you come to the park -- and I've felt this over the last 10 years of being here -- anytime teams play USC you always get something new and fresh. Whatever you see on tape, don't believe, because you're going to get something. Part of that is being able to adjust and I thought Graham [Harrell] did a wonderful job last night, especially the halftime adjustments of being able to say, 'OK, they're doing this right now, something they had not shown throughout the year, and this is where we need to go to.' You look up and I thought it was a tremendous second half. It's part of being at USC, it's part of being in this offense and the weapons that we have. The beautiful thing about it is with the weapons you have you may be able to slow down the outside, but all of a sudden you get Amon-Ra St. Brown with a 100-yard game and you look up and you have over 170 yards rushing with your backs. That's the beauty with the weapons that we have and being able to spread the field. You may be able to take one element away, but all of a sudden the other one's going to get you and it went for 424 yards last night. Credit to Amon-Ra -- I thought he made some really big plays -- and credit to our backs, I thought they made some good plays. When it came time to when we finally produced some one-on-one coverage down in the red zone you saw Tyler and Pitt get involved and make their plays."
On facing Khalil Tate and USC's struggles against mobile QBs ...
"I think, one, let's give credit to Ian [Book]. I think he's a tremendous football player and man did he come to compete last night. We were able to get one sack on the night, and when we look back on this tape we had the opportunity to be able to get three or four more and a couple that would have knocked them out of field goal range. The one especially that I remember for 52 yards, that was a tremendous kick by their field goal kicker, we had the opportunity to get him down and just missed. We've got another young man coming to town in Khalil Tate that we have a lot of respect for, and the biggest thing for us is being able to keep our rush lanes. We're a very penetrating defense, and part of being a penetrating defense and getting to the quarterback and getting him off his spot is also to continue to stay in your rush lanes and not get out of it and that discipline."
"After watching the tape, it was very much like I felt after the game. It was two teams that played a tremendously clean football game, and usually when that happens you know it becomes a field position battle. Teams weren't making the critical error, and usually that means it comes down to third-down efficiency and explosive plays. And it was really a tale of two halves for us. Starting offensively, in the first half we're 2-of-8 -- 25 percent -- on third down and it had a lot to do with what we were doing on first and second down. You look up and we have a third-and-11, and third-and-13, a third-and-15 and against that defense that's where their home is, especially with their pass rush. Then in the second half you look and we're 75 percent on third down, a lot more third-and-manageable. I thought our first-down efficiency was a lot better, our tempo was a lot better and our rhythm was a lot better in the second half.
"Defensively, exact opposite. I thought for basically a quarter and a half of ball I thought we played really good football, especially on third down. We ended up being 3 of 7 coming out of the first half and then 6 of 10 in the second half. The explosive plays we didn't really garner until the second half when they did a nice job of producing them in the run game. Tony [Jones Jr.] has a 43-yard run and then Lenzy has a reverse for 51 that leads to a touchdown. So I thought that was probably the difference the in the game -- the third downs and the explosive plays.
"Positives coming out of this game, I love our guys' mental toughness. I love how they stay in the fight at all times, and that's what they'll continue to do and we'll all do. We've got a tremendous opportunity ahead of us. We control our own destiny in our league and have a chance to win a Pac-12 title and go to a Rose Bowl, and to be able to do that we've got to focus on the moment right now, which is Arizona. Focus on executing our systems with great fundamentals and technique.
On injuries ...
"There was a bunch of kids that I just thought were warriors. They suffered injuries in the game and went back out there and battled, and EA was one of those guys. Has an ankle sprain, taped it up, was able to finish the game out, so we'll see where he's at on Tuesday. Greg Johnson suffered a shoulder injury that pulled him out. Olaijah Griffin's back acted up again and that pulled him from the game. Then ITS suffered an ankle sprain that he was able to get back in and at least finish the game. We'll see where that's at. Vavae's knee has finally gotten to a point with the swelling that medically they're going to go ahead and clean it out. He'll have surgery on Tuesday on the knee and I don't have a timetable for when he'll be back with that."
On whether team needs to find a spark after losing three of four ...
"We're sitting here at 3-3 with a really talented football team in my opinion. I think were at least as good as each and every team that we play down the stretch here and [we've] got at tremendous opportunity within league to go try to win six games and try to get back to Santa Clara. I think the biggest thing for us after watching last night's tape was our fundamentals and technique and some of our assignments, just being able to spill a counter play, getting out of a gap where a quarterback draw happens. Being able to diagnose being hot in a protection. It's little things that we're going to have to clean up over this week. The one thing like I said, I love this team's fight and I love where they're at. They've beaten a top-10 team. I thought we had the opportunity to put ourselves in position to beat another one last night and just fell a little short. But this team has tremendous fight and they'll be ready for the next one."
On adjusting the RB rotation in light of Malepeai's injury ...
"We've been very fortunate here to garner a lot of talented backs, Vavae being one of them. Stephen Carr, Markese [Stepp] and we have Quincy Jountti as well as Kenan Christon. So the beautiful thing about the new rule is with four games and still being able to redshirt is it allows you to play some freshmen and still have the decision whether you redshirt them or not and Kenan's in that position. So we still have a bunch of talented backs. Vavae's a warrior and has been dealing with a sore knee and really fighting through it for his team and it's just gotten to the point where it's gotten too sore so we're going to go ahead and take care of it now. The good fortune is we've still got a lot of talented backs on this team."
On opposing defenses doing things against USC that they don't normally show ...
"You know, I think anytime you come to the park -- and I've felt this over the last 10 years of being here -- anytime teams play USC you always get something new and fresh. Whatever you see on tape, don't believe, because you're going to get something. Part of that is being able to adjust and I thought Graham [Harrell] did a wonderful job last night, especially the halftime adjustments of being able to say, 'OK, they're doing this right now, something they had not shown throughout the year, and this is where we need to go to.' You look up and I thought it was a tremendous second half. It's part of being at USC, it's part of being in this offense and the weapons that we have. The beautiful thing about it is with the weapons you have you may be able to slow down the outside, but all of a sudden you get Amon-Ra St. Brown with a 100-yard game and you look up and you have over 170 yards rushing with your backs. That's the beauty with the weapons that we have and being able to spread the field. You may be able to take one element away, but all of a sudden the other one's going to get you and it went for 424 yards last night. Credit to Amon-Ra -- I thought he made some really big plays -- and credit to our backs, I thought they made some good plays. When it came time to when we finally produced some one-on-one coverage down in the red zone you saw Tyler and Pitt get involved and make their plays."
On facing Khalil Tate and USC's struggles against mobile QBs ...
"I think, one, let's give credit to Ian [Book]. I think he's a tremendous football player and man did he come to compete last night. We were able to get one sack on the night, and when we look back on this tape we had the opportunity to be able to get three or four more and a couple that would have knocked them out of field goal range. The one especially that I remember for 52 yards, that was a tremendous kick by their field goal kicker, we had the opportunity to get him down and just missed. We've got another young man coming to town in Khalil Tate that we have a lot of respect for, and the biggest thing for us is being able to keep our rush lanes. We're a very penetrating defense, and part of being a penetrating defense and getting to the quarterback and getting him off his spot is also to continue to stay in your rush lanes and not get out of it and that discipline."
