USC defensive coordinator Alex Grinch wasted no time before digging into what went so wrong last Saturday night at Utah, as the Trojans gave up a season-high 562 yards -- 210.5 more than their season average coming into the day, and 121 more than any other game -- in that 43-42 loss to the Utes.

The unpleasant process of watching the unit's failures back over again started for Grinch on the bus ride from the stadium.

"Immediately. ... Within 10 minutes, they've got that thing on your iPad and you're watching that thing on the bus," he said after practice Wednesday. "Just because it stings, it burns. You work your tail off and these guys do and the coaching staff does, and we understand the expectations at USC. We understand when we don't get the outcomes that we want, it's on us. We take ownership of it. We tell the guys, 'If we own it, we have a chance to do something about it.' ... We don't feel good right now. We don't."

USC (6-1, 4-1 Pac-12) squandered a strong start 21-7 lead, had no answer for Utah tight end Dalton Kincaid (16 catches for 234 yards and 1 TD) and let the Utes march down to score the winning touchdown and two-point conversion in the final minute.

Utah scored touchdowns on five of its final six possessions with the lone exception coming after a fumble just outside of the goal line. The Utes scored 22 of their points in the second half against a USC defense that had allowed just 36 second-half points combined over the first six games and hadn't allowed more than 14 points after halftime to any opponent (Stanford) all season.

The Trojans dropped five spots in the AP poll to No. 12 and now need some help along the way for both their Pac-12 championship hopes and College Football Playoff aspirations.

As disappointed as Grinch was, though, he wasn't going to let it overwhelm the results of the first six games of the season, when it looked like the defense was building real momentum and confidence.

"What you can't do is you can't take 60-some, whatever, 70 odd reps on Saturday and then say all the reps the six games before didn't happen. That's just not the appropriate thing to do," Grinch said. "However, we do believe in one-game evaluations. Just stick to, was it good enough? No, thumbs down. Was the coverage good enough? No. Was the pass rush good enough? No. And then we've got to as coaches make sure we put the onus back on us from a preparation standpoint. All you're trying to do is make sure you're better for it. ... It's not time for panic mode. It's also time to get better results."