Highlights from our interviews following USC's loss to Oregon ...
Justin Wilcox
--On his initial takeaways from the game
“I’m going to have to obviously watch it but we didn’t do a good enough job preparing them and we didn’t execute well enough to beat the team Oregon is.”
--On what specifically they weren’t prepared for
“I thought we would execute better in the pass game. We knew (Vernon Adams) would scramble around and buy some time and we didn’t make a lot of plays there, on the ball. There were a couple busts that they took advantage of. And then there were a couple times we got to finish a little better. It’s obviously unacceptable and disappointing and we got to go fix it.”
--On whether the defense was having communication issues
“There was one I know that was. (The TD pass to Evan Baylis in the first quarter.) Other than that, we’ll get into the video.”
--On not having Cameron Smith and Lamar Dawson
“We prepared all week, we knew we weren’t going to have them, and we were confident in the guys that were in there.”
--On Vernon Adams
“There were some critical, critical downs where — we call it plaster, you have to plaster your man if we’re playing zone, or if you’re in man you got to keep covering — he hurt us bad. There were a number of them. You pick and choose your time to pressure him and a couple of times he escaped and made some plays on us. Again, we got to do a better job preparing the guys, that’s on us as coaches. And then we got to execute better against a team like that.”
--On whether Oregon’s multiple formations became too much to deal with
“We knew there was going to be a lot of multiples and they did stuff that we hadn’t seen, and that’s what you expect. So you got to play plays on principles and your numbers aren’t always going to be perfect in the run game. Those are where you got to win some 1-on-1s, and we won a few, obviously not near enough to stop a team like that.”
--On whether he was surprised how the game went given how well the defense had been playing
“I thought we would play better than that. I think we all did, absolutely.”
Keith Heyward
--On whether there were communication issues
“There were no communication issues. We have to make a play when the opportunity is presented.”
--On why some receivers were wide open
“When you play a zone and you talk about plastering and getting to the receivers, you have to plaster and go get to them, especially when you got a mobile quarterback who’s going to extend plays with his feet. …
“It was only a couple plays in zone that they actually broke free. It was plays in man that we were right there. You got to have him. That’s frustrating. I’m the DBs coach, I never want to see the ball in the air and guys running and catching the ball.”
--On what he attributes this performance to after several good ones by the secondary
“It was unfortunate. They’re a good team. They got good players. But at the same time, when you’re playing pass coverage, we need to cover better. Bottom line. We got to have our man and you got to stick to him and you have to cover him. … It’s 1-on-1. It’s me and you. Who’s going to win?”
--On Adams’ ability to make coverage periods last longer
“That happens too. You want to get some pressure, but at the same time, you’re a DB, cover. Cover 10 seconds if you have to. It’s a 1-on-1 play and you have to do it. Something’s gotta give.”
--On what needs to be corrected
“You have to do your job. If you’re playing man coverage, you have to cover your man. You have to just do your job down in and down out, over and over and over again. It gets boring but you have to do it.”
--On whether there is a particular reason Biggie Marshall struggled so much
“I’m wondering why too. It is what it is. We got to fix it. We got to fix it.”
John Plattenburg
--on the TD pass to a wide open Baylis
“I was reading the quarterback’s eyes and there was a receiver also on the left side running up the seam. But then one obviously was running up the right side. It was kind of hard being in the Cover 3. It was just a bad placement, obviously. The receiver was open, but then in the corner of my eye I see this other guy running up the middle of the field. That’s something I got to get better at, just reading the quarterback.”
--on whether Oregon just makes things difficult sometimes given their different looks
“I think it was us just having to calm down, really just a lot of stuff going on. Saying in our head, I’m going to do my job, and just block out everything else that happened.”
Chris Hawkins
--On how the secondary played
“I don’t feel we played well. We busted some coverages, we didn’t win our 1-on-1s like we were supposed to. This was our worst outing I think as a secondary unit.”
--On what else caused them to play so poorly
“You know their crowd, they have an awesome fan base, their crowd is loud, everything is loud. We had some miscommunication on some plays and it cost us some big plays.”
--On the busted play to the tight end where he seemed wide, wide open
“We ran a three deep defense and Plat was the post safety and he thought the quarterback was going to throw it to another receiver so he went to that receiver and then the quarterback came back.”
--On being in contention for the Pac-12 South title despite a loss
“That’s just how the Pac-12 South is, this conference works that way. Utah was the frontrunner at the beginning of the season, they lost to us, Arizona and UCLA, so they have three losses, we have three losses now and UCLA has three losses. I mean, that’s just the way it goes. This game that’s coming up is going to be for all the marbles.”
--On staying upbeat because they can still win the South
“God granted us a gift with this one. It was in our hands to just win out and go play but we lost. But at the same time, God granted us a gift with, I hate to say it, but we were kind of rooting on the team across town to win and do what they had to do. They did it and now it should be great on Saturday, the Coliseum should be rocking.”
--On his interception and the touchdown he allowed
“On the first one, I was in the post, I was reading the quarterback and I know from watching film, I knew when he scrambles, he likes to take shots downfield. So I was able to see it, read it and see him take the shot downfield and I went to go get it. On the second one, we were in the same predicament and I saw two receivers, one receiver came across my face the first time and I saw another one coming again, so I put my eyes on the second one coming and I guess I never saw the ball in the air until late. … I put the blame on myself for that play. That’s a play that we could have stopped easily, I should have had my second pick of the game on that play but I didn’t see it fast enough.”
--On it being loud even when USC was on defense
“On the Charles Nelson touchdown, we couldn’t, Biggie didn’t get the correct call. We were all out of whack on that play, even though we still could have covered it.”
--On how difficult Vernon Adams makes things
“That’s very difficult when you got a guy back there that’s running around like his head’s on fire and you gotta chase around receivers and they’re not really running routes. They run routes, you shut the routes down and they’re running all around the place. That’s very hard and I give props to him. He makes things happen with his feet just like the dude that was here last year did. So he’s amazing right now. When he’s healthy, they’re a top-10 team for sure.”
Justin Wilcox
--On his initial takeaways from the game
“I’m going to have to obviously watch it but we didn’t do a good enough job preparing them and we didn’t execute well enough to beat the team Oregon is.”
--On what specifically they weren’t prepared for
“I thought we would execute better in the pass game. We knew (Vernon Adams) would scramble around and buy some time and we didn’t make a lot of plays there, on the ball. There were a couple busts that they took advantage of. And then there were a couple times we got to finish a little better. It’s obviously unacceptable and disappointing and we got to go fix it.”
--On whether the defense was having communication issues
“There was one I know that was. (The TD pass to Evan Baylis in the first quarter.) Other than that, we’ll get into the video.”
--On not having Cameron Smith and Lamar Dawson
“We prepared all week, we knew we weren’t going to have them, and we were confident in the guys that were in there.”
--On Vernon Adams
“There were some critical, critical downs where — we call it plaster, you have to plaster your man if we’re playing zone, or if you’re in man you got to keep covering — he hurt us bad. There were a number of them. You pick and choose your time to pressure him and a couple of times he escaped and made some plays on us. Again, we got to do a better job preparing the guys, that’s on us as coaches. And then we got to execute better against a team like that.”
--On whether Oregon’s multiple formations became too much to deal with
“We knew there was going to be a lot of multiples and they did stuff that we hadn’t seen, and that’s what you expect. So you got to play plays on principles and your numbers aren’t always going to be perfect in the run game. Those are where you got to win some 1-on-1s, and we won a few, obviously not near enough to stop a team like that.”
--On whether he was surprised how the game went given how well the defense had been playing
“I thought we would play better than that. I think we all did, absolutely.”
Keith Heyward
--On whether there were communication issues
“There were no communication issues. We have to make a play when the opportunity is presented.”
--On why some receivers were wide open
“When you play a zone and you talk about plastering and getting to the receivers, you have to plaster and go get to them, especially when you got a mobile quarterback who’s going to extend plays with his feet. …
“It was only a couple plays in zone that they actually broke free. It was plays in man that we were right there. You got to have him. That’s frustrating. I’m the DBs coach, I never want to see the ball in the air and guys running and catching the ball.”
--On what he attributes this performance to after several good ones by the secondary
“It was unfortunate. They’re a good team. They got good players. But at the same time, when you’re playing pass coverage, we need to cover better. Bottom line. We got to have our man and you got to stick to him and you have to cover him. … It’s 1-on-1. It’s me and you. Who’s going to win?”
--On Adams’ ability to make coverage periods last longer
“That happens too. You want to get some pressure, but at the same time, you’re a DB, cover. Cover 10 seconds if you have to. It’s a 1-on-1 play and you have to do it. Something’s gotta give.”
--On what needs to be corrected
“You have to do your job. If you’re playing man coverage, you have to cover your man. You have to just do your job down in and down out, over and over and over again. It gets boring but you have to do it.”
--On whether there is a particular reason Biggie Marshall struggled so much
“I’m wondering why too. It is what it is. We got to fix it. We got to fix it.”
John Plattenburg
--on the TD pass to a wide open Baylis
“I was reading the quarterback’s eyes and there was a receiver also on the left side running up the seam. But then one obviously was running up the right side. It was kind of hard being in the Cover 3. It was just a bad placement, obviously. The receiver was open, but then in the corner of my eye I see this other guy running up the middle of the field. That’s something I got to get better at, just reading the quarterback.”
--on whether Oregon just makes things difficult sometimes given their different looks
“I think it was us just having to calm down, really just a lot of stuff going on. Saying in our head, I’m going to do my job, and just block out everything else that happened.”
Chris Hawkins
--On how the secondary played
“I don’t feel we played well. We busted some coverages, we didn’t win our 1-on-1s like we were supposed to. This was our worst outing I think as a secondary unit.”
--On what else caused them to play so poorly
“You know their crowd, they have an awesome fan base, their crowd is loud, everything is loud. We had some miscommunication on some plays and it cost us some big plays.”
--On the busted play to the tight end where he seemed wide, wide open
“We ran a three deep defense and Plat was the post safety and he thought the quarterback was going to throw it to another receiver so he went to that receiver and then the quarterback came back.”
--On being in contention for the Pac-12 South title despite a loss
“That’s just how the Pac-12 South is, this conference works that way. Utah was the frontrunner at the beginning of the season, they lost to us, Arizona and UCLA, so they have three losses, we have three losses now and UCLA has three losses. I mean, that’s just the way it goes. This game that’s coming up is going to be for all the marbles.”
--On staying upbeat because they can still win the South
“God granted us a gift with this one. It was in our hands to just win out and go play but we lost. But at the same time, God granted us a gift with, I hate to say it, but we were kind of rooting on the team across town to win and do what they had to do. They did it and now it should be great on Saturday, the Coliseum should be rocking.”
--On his interception and the touchdown he allowed
“On the first one, I was in the post, I was reading the quarterback and I know from watching film, I knew when he scrambles, he likes to take shots downfield. So I was able to see it, read it and see him take the shot downfield and I went to go get it. On the second one, we were in the same predicament and I saw two receivers, one receiver came across my face the first time and I saw another one coming again, so I put my eyes on the second one coming and I guess I never saw the ball in the air until late. … I put the blame on myself for that play. That’s a play that we could have stopped easily, I should have had my second pick of the game on that play but I didn’t see it fast enough.”
--On it being loud even when USC was on defense
“On the Charles Nelson touchdown, we couldn’t, Biggie didn’t get the correct call. We were all out of whack on that play, even though we still could have covered it.”
--On how difficult Vernon Adams makes things
“That’s very difficult when you got a guy back there that’s running around like his head’s on fire and you gotta chase around receivers and they’re not really running routes. They run routes, you shut the routes down and they’re running all around the place. That’s very hard and I give props to him. He makes things happen with his feet just like the dude that was here last year did. So he’s amazing right now. When he’s healthy, they’re a top-10 team for sure.”
