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ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 26, 2015Todd GrahamTempe, Arizona USC - 42 Bottom line is we turned the football over four times and that absolutely killed us. They did a great job of executing. I mean, we got them in 3rd down and long over and over and over again early, and you've got to give them credit. They did some good things moving Adoree' around, and we knew that they're very, very fast. I felt really good early because I knew they couldn't run the ball, and we were able to handle that. Just their speed and athleticism, we left a couple of critical errors, left some guys uncovered. But at the end of the day we can't turn the ball over going in on the 1-yard line. I think that was, obviously, the play of the game. Then you run the ball out. I mean, we haven't done stuff like that. That stuff's unacceptable, and we as coaches can't have that stuff happening. Those back-to-back, I mean, that was a 14-point swing, and I thought if we had punched that thing in and scored, I really, really thought because we were dominating the line of scrimmage defensively that we could win the game. We moved the football. I think there was five yards difference in the yardage. Who cares about that. But they were the better team tonight, and congratulate them, they did a good job. Q. You mentioned the fumbles there in the first half. Just overall from the offense with the ball security, there was a big dropped pass. This is kind of some sloppiness that we haven't seen from this offense in a while? COACH GRAHAM: It really, really has. It has been. That's been the problem. You know, we work really hard preparing them. We've got some new guys handling the football. Boy, there's a lot of dropped passes. I think we're putting the ball in jeopardy way too much, and we've never done that in the whole -- we've put the ball in jeopardy is what's -- if you do that, that's why I say that all the time, you're not going to have a chance to win games. Now you have to give them credit, but what happened on the goal line is we have our back-up center in, and, again, that's no excuse. But snapped the ball up high and then we don't get the ball handed off or something happened on the mesh. It wasn't a read zone; he was just supposed to hand it off. So that resulted in 7 points the other way, 99.5 yards. So we've got to get that under control. If you look at the stats and you look at everything else, that's the difference. Because I'm just telling you now, they move the football on everybody they played. You can't give up the big play to them. But even when we did, we were able to get it down and battle. I thought our guys battled. I was really proud of Salamo Fiso and the defense, and how they responded. Went out the second half and we gave up one score. Obviously, Lloyd getting hurt hurt us a little bit there. He's pretty important to us. But, yeah, that's been the deal. That's been their big deal there. Then just the deal on running the ball out of the end zone. Before the game I talked about, again, it doesn't matter about talking about stuff. We talk about with all the right intentions you don't operate. Actually, we didn't do it in the game, and somebody just tried to make a play, and we fumbled the ball, turned the football over there. You know, that was 14 points and a very short period of time. The game was extremely competitive early. Obviously, we were moving the ball. I mean, we were moving the ball and doing some good things, so I felt like we were going to be okay. If we could have gotten that touch, it would have made it a two-score game. That was obviously a kick in the gut, followed by another kick in the gut. So we're self-destructing when you're turning the football over like that. Q. You mentioned third down issues. A lot of those were medium and long-type plays. Was it a theme or what did you take from your inability there and seeing success on early downs? COACH GRAHAM: We obviously were trying to pressure and then we were trying to defend. We tried just about everything. We had guys on guys. They got underneath us and we were struggling. It wasn't the deep ball. It was the unders. So then when we played zone, then the quarterback ran for 17 yards. I don't know. I'll have to look at the film and evaluate it. But obviously that was the biggest thing defensively in the first half was just not being able to -- and that is uncharacteristic of us. I think it had a lot to do with their speed. You've got to give Cody credit. He did a good job of getting the ball out quick, and they ran mesh, T, Will. That's what they ran five times and that's all we practiced. So they executed and we didn't. Q. You talked about how this is one of the most talented teams you've ever had. Do you think it's just as simple as you guys are making some mistakes or is there some evaluation going on? COACH GRAHAM: No, I think this is the best team we've had overall, we're just not playing that way. We're not -- that's my opinion. I mean, I work with them every day. Our run defense and defensively we're better than we've ever been. Special teams-wise, we're faster and deeper. We're doing some good things there, and then you do things that are just uncharacteristic of what we need to be doing. But we're just not, we're not playing. We've got very talented players. Obviously, we've got some new people. A lot of new receivers, new people in there and we're dropping the ball and turning the ball over. So we've got to get a cap on that. We start practice every day with taking care of the football and doing all those things. So we've just got to get the chemistry of what we're doing going where we need to be. I do think we played a lot better offensively tonight than we've played, and that was probably one of our better games. Obviously, you've got everybody back, but just the timing and execution hasn't been there and it has a lot to do with who we're playing. The team we played was pretty good, and they were better than us tonight. Q. Have you been pleased with your tackling up to this point? COACH GRAHAM: Yeah, I mean, there were times we missed some tackles tonight. Man, we gave up a hit screen on the sideline that's just, golly, we came underneath, and that's just something we don't do. But, I mean, they got some, they throw that ball out there to No. 2, and I mean, No. 2 and No. 9, Adoree' and those guys, JuJu, are pretty dad gum athletic, you know. Now we missed some tackles tonight, and I think we had the ball I know a lot more than they did. I think about ten minutes more than they did on the night and that was by design. Obviously, we knew we needed to keep their offense (No Audio). I don't know, eight or nine TFLs and probably three sacks or something like that, and we needed to have about eight sacks. And we missed him back in the back field on one that just broke our back. But you've got to give him credit. You've got to give them credit. On everything, it's obviously I do think that we played obviously with the guys back on offense, we played a lot better offensively tonight than we have. We had a lot of yards, just not scoring the points we needed to. Got a lot of drops and things like that. So just got to go to work. I remember going home and getting my butt kicked by Stanford, and everybody -- that's how you respond to this. If this is the best team that we've had, then we're going to respond and go and figure out a way to go win next week. Half the teams in the conference are 0-1, so that's the way it is. So you've got to get up and go to work. But you can only make excuses for one or two more weeks and then you've got to win. So that's kind of the way it is now. It's single elimination. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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