Amidst the stunned faces and usual talk about needing to see the tape to fully understand what went so wrong Saturday night at Texas, USC running back Aca'Cedric Ware delivered the most candid and revealing explanation.

"We've got to practice better, period," he said on his way out of the locker room.

Ware felt the Trojans were "kind of lazy, kind of slow," at least on offense, leading into that humbling 37-14 loss to the Longhorns. And for that matter, he felt the same way about the buildup to the loss last week at Stanford.

USC coach Clay Helton was asked about Ware's comments during his weekly Sunday conference call with reporters, and he disagreed with the span of the assessment.

"I think he's probably referencing maybe to last Thursday when I addressed the offense. I thought we had an off day at practice and I communicated that with them immediately. It's not an entire two weeks," Helton said. "We did have an off practice last Thursday. I immediately addressed with them as soon as practice was over, offensively, and let them know what our standards are and also let them know that it doesn't always have to come from the coach.

"To make sure that if the players feel it and I'm over on the defensive side of the field, make sure they step up also. It's probably in reference to that, and we addressed it."

Helton had sidestepped a question after the game about whether he would look to change the Trojans' practice routine after back-to-back double-digit losses, steering his answer to the fact that it has to be different this week simply because USC has a condensed schedule with a home game Friday night against Washington State.

And to be clear, Ware’s critique was not with how the coaches structured practice — or with the coaches at all — but rather with the effort and approach of the offensive players.

Nonetheless, on Sunday, Helton was pressed further on whether he thinks the Trojans are getting enough physical work on goal-line situations after they were stuffed on back-to-back plays from the Texas 1-yard line in the second quarter Saturday night. This after the line was blown up for a strip sack on a pivotal fourth-and-2 play last week at Stanford.

"We get it in team run situations on Tuesday. We've been in full pads every Tuesday and have done team run as well as service period areas to be able to handle the run," Helton said. "As a matter of fact, Tuesday is the heavy run emphasis for the day -- 75 percent of our play calls on that day are run game, whether it's short-yardage or normal down and distance. So we try to get as much as we can done in that Tuesday while we're in full pads."

The Trojans switch to shells on Wednesdays for practice.

On that Texas goal line stand, Vavae Malepeai was stuffed up the middle on third down from the 1 and Stephen Carr was then stopped for a loss of 2 on a pitch to the right.

Helton said there was a miscommunication on the offensive line on that last play, which kept USC's lead at 14-13 at the time before Texas seized control.

"As far as getting the ball outside, we were playing a 3-4 front which was bringing edge pressure, which is hard a lot of times to get that ball out on the perimeter. Tried on the goal line. You know, I thought Tee [Martin] made a good play call," he said. "We ended up getting a miscommunication with the line, but he did try to get it with the crack toss that has been good for us in the past. But they did a nice job setting the edges all night and forcing the ball inside."

In Ware's revealing postgame comments, he also noted the offense needed some leaders to emerge to get on guys when the intensity or focus is lacking on the practice field. He vowed to be one of those voices.

Helton suggested that all three running backs (Ware, Carr and Malepeai) are "very much well respected" and are the kind of voices who could make an impact in those situations, along with senior offensive linemen Toa Lobendahn, Chuma Edoga and Chris Brown, wide receiver Tyler Vaughns and tight end Tyler Petite.

Meanwhile, Helton had praised veteran safety Marvell Tell after the game Saturday for refusing to come off the field even as things got out of hand. He added senior cornerback Iman "Biggie" Marshall to that list during his comments Sunday.

Ever positive, Helton reinforced the point that these players have been in this spot before and know how to get the Trojans back on track.

Of course, USC started 1-3 two seasons ago before winning its final nine games -- including a Rose Bowl victory over Penn State -- to finish ranked as a top-five team.

That was with Sam Darnold at quarterback. These Trojans are trying to break in his successor, freshman JT Daniels, but Helton thinks the team can nonetheless draw upon that 2016 experience.

"It's early in the season. We do have great senior leaders, and one thing I did tell our team, these guys that are the seniors, if you remember, they've been in some hard times and some tough times and they know how to get out of it," Helton said. "And that's what I told the younger kids today ... Look to these seniors, look to a Toa Lobendahn, look to a Chuma Edoga and a Chris Brown. Look to a Cam Smith, a Marvell Tell, a Biggie Marshall. ...

"That's our primary focus is making sure our young kids understand, lean on the older guys because they've been in this situation and they know how to dig us out -- and I know they will."

For that matter, Helton noted that he too has that experience of pulling a team out of a rough start like this.

He said he doesn't want his upbeat nature to give the impression that he isn't taking the struggles seriously or paying the proper attention to diagnosing the issues.

He just believes he has to set the tone for the attitude of his team moving forward if the Trojans are going to turn this season around.

"I've been in this situation before and anytime that you face some adversity young men look to their leader and how they're going to react, because how you react they're going to react," Helton said. "And if my juice is down and my energy's down and I'm not upbeat and I don't show confidence and belief in them then it's going to be hard. So I look forward to having a chance to be able to get back out there Friday and look forward to having a chance of improving this team this week and going to try to win a huge Pac-12 game."