Following Saturday night's 28-26 nail-biting victory over Arizona, USC sophomore safety/linebacker Su'a Cravens was happy to have a win, but wasn't satisfied with how the game concluded. In the above video, he talked about the Trojans' victory and said it never should have come down to the final moments.
"In my opinion, it shouldn't have come down to a missed field goal," Cravens said. "We should have recovered the onside kick. We had a bunch of opportunities, but we let them come back. I'm glad my team fought. They fought and came out with the 'W.'"
Cravens had a solid, if unremarkable by the lofty standards he has set. game rotating between the SAM linebacker position he has occupied over the last few weeks and a two-high safety slot on some of the more obvious passing downs. It is the first time this season he has had that type of rotation. He finished with five tackles, including one tackle for loss -- increasing his team lead to 9.5 TFL on the season. He also had one pass break up.
In the fourth quarter, when Su'a Cravens looked to his right and left he may have seen some different faces in the secondary. Freshmen Jonathan Lockett and John Plattenburg got their first significant crunch-time minutes and redshirt freshman Chris Hawkins was pushed into the primary cover corner position when starting cornerbacks Adoree' Jackson and Kevon Seymour both left the game with injuries.
In the interview above, Cravens talked about what he said to the freshmen defensive backs and how he coached them up. Cravens said the main thing was calming them down. Rather than being nervous at the game coming down to the wire once again, the sophomore hybrid safety/linebacker said he was frustrated.
"I'm upset it came that close," Su'a Cravens said. "We should have been taking a knee, running the game, but I'm very happy with the victory. This is a big win for us. The No. 10 team in the nation at their house, so I'm proud of my guys.
Leonard Williams, Terris Jones-GrigsbySu'a Cravens also spoke very highly of running back Buck Allen.
"When Buck runs like that, I don't think anybody's better than him. He probably one of the best running backs in the nation, if not the best, when he's running like that" Cravens said. "Buck's one of the leaders on our team. When he takes control like that, it means a lot to the defense and makes us want to fight for him.
Check out the full interview with Su'a Cravens in the video above.