Wilcox tackles Trojans’ defensive struggles
On Wednesday, defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox addressed his players’ performance after head coach Steve Sarkisian largely attributed the Trojans’ first loss to the inconsistent play of his defense on Tuesday.
“It is unacceptable how we played,” Wilcox said. “I know our guys are going to come back and fight, and we all expect to play better than that. There is no doubt, that was unacceptable.”
Stanford picked apart the USC defense for 474 yards, converting eight of 12 third downs and holding the ball for nearly 40 minutes.
Wednesday’s practice felt slower. A lot of the time, the defensive players stood in place and watched their coaches teach them different schemes and formations — something Wilcox noted his defense struggled with against Stanford.
“[Stanford gives] you a lot of different formations and personnel looks,” Wilcox said. “You can match them, and then they will break their formation. So we have to play some plays on principal, whether it is man coverage or it is zone coverage.”
When asked about the run defense that struggled all night against a hearty Stanford offensive line, Wilcox again referred to his players’ execution in those formations. Sophomore Christian McCaffrey led the Stanford rushing game with 115 yards, behind a line that pushed the Trojans to their heels all night.
“We thought we would play base against their run game to stop it early on,” Wilcox said. “So we started substituting and going with bigger people. We just felt like there were certain downs that we could probably do well against the run in base, and we didn’t. We have to finish plays when we have the chance to finish them, and we have to have the mental intensity to execute down in and down out.”
Though Sarkisian seemed pleased with his teams’ effort and spirit at practice, the Trojans will have to learn from their mistakes quickly if they want to compete at Arizona State. The Sun Devils, who some have picked to win their third Pac-12 South title in three years, haven’t quite played up to expectations this season, dropping their opener against Texas A&M, barely beating lower-division Cal Poly and stumbling in a 34-10 win over New Mexico.
“The more we continue to watch Arizona State, the more you see that they are a good football team,” head coach Steve Sarkisian said. “We’re going to have our work cut out for us on Saturday night.”
Sarkisian brought Wilcox with him from Washington, where the former Oregon defensive back served as the defensive coordinator for two seasons. In 2012, the Huskies were in the national top 40 in total defense.
In 2013, UW’s scoring defense improved to the national top 35 while its pass efficiency defense also rose 60 spots to 27th nationally. Its 41 pass sacks in 2013 are second most nationally, but one wouldn’t know it by watching USC’s most recent performance against Stanford.
“For us, we are trying to improve in that area,” Wilcox said when asked about his emphasis on getting to the quarterback.
The Trojans allowed quarterback Kevin Hogan to convert 18 of 23 passes for 279 yards with two touchdowns.
“You pick and choose your spots on pressuring, and sometimes you want to be able to rush with four guys and sometimes you are going to bring five or more, and we did both,” Wilcox said. We just weren’t effective enough to make them uncomfortable.”
Sarkisian repeatedly stressed the USC game plan in practice last week before the Stanford game: win on first down, pressure Kevin Hogan, keep containment and locate Christian McCaffrey. But Wilcox, coming off a season with poor defensive outings coming in losses to Boston College and Arizona State, failed to accomplish any of these.
“We all felt that in terms of X and O’s things just started to bleed a little bit.” Wilcox said. “We made some critical mistakes on key plays and on key drives, and in some of the one-on-ones, we were about a step away and that is where the reaction needs to be a step early, whether that be in the run game or in the pass game.”
The boos that rained down from the USC crowd on Saturday night might have resulted from the defense continually not being able to stop Stanford on third down, which kept the USC offense off the field.
“I don’t think that there is any problem with the schemes,” redshirt senior inside linebacker Anthony Sarao said. “I think it is on the players to make those plays and tackle and get off the blocks and getting to the balls.
When asked after practice if he felt the heat or criticism from the fans, Wilcox appeared calm.
“Every day I’ve ever coached college football there’s that,” Wilcox said. “For us, it is all we work on. It is everything you do, 365 days a year. So it is disappointing when you don’t go and play as well as you think you can play so we need to take corrections.”
Sarkisian reiterated his belief in his second-year defensive coordinator. Last year’s USC defense was in the nation’s Top 20 in turnover margin, red zone defense and third down conversion defense. But, USC has struggled to replace production from Leonard Williams and Hayes Pullard.
“I continue to support him the way I had been supported when I was a coordinator, and I didn’t do my best,” Sarkisian said. “We have people on our staff working extremely hard that are very bright, great coaches. They wouldn’t be here if they weren’t and I just want to make sure that they go out and continue to operate to the best of their ability.”
Wilcox, who brings a strong football background to the table, has built quality defenses at Boise State, Tennessee and Washington before USC and is widely considered to potentially become a head coach one day at the collegiate level.
His Trojan defense that returns eight starters will have to improve if Wilcox is to follow Sarkisian’s game plan for the defense this year.
“I want our defense to be aggressive, fast, opportunistic, creating turnovers and getting our hands on the ball,” Sarkisian said. “Now we have gone eight straight quarters without creating a turnover. For us to be the team we want to become, turnovers have to be a piece of that puzzle.”