Everything Lincoln Riley said after USC's 48-41 win at Colorado

BOULDER, Colorado -- USC coach Lincoln Riley emphasized the significance of another road win and overcoming more adversity away from home, but many of the questions after the game focused on the mounting concerns -- again -- about the Trojans' defense.

No. 8-ranked USC led by 27 points midway through the third quarter before watching Colorado rally back to make it a one-score game, leading to a pivotal onside kick attempt in the final minutes that the Trojans recovered to hold on for a 48-41 win at Folsom Field.

That's back-to-back week, including the 42-28 win at Arizona State last week, in which USC (5-0, 3-0 Pac-12) let a slumping offense roar back to life as the Buffs rumbled for 564 yards -- 318 in the second half.

Afterward, Riley was asked point blank if he still believed in defensive coordinator Alex Grinch the way he has vocalized in the past.

"Yes, I do," he said simply.

He was asked why with more talent on defense this year many of the issues for the unit seem to be the same?

"Yeah, it's not really the same issues, though. I don't agree with it," Riley said. "I feel like even right now when something doesn't go our way -- we're five games in, we're taking that litmus test right now -- when something doesn't go our way it doesn't look like last year. Not to the trained eye, not to a coach. Now, we've still got plenty to correct and there's two things today that absolutely when we weren't good killed us. And that was we didn't do a good job of keeping the quarterback in the pocket -- because really we were suffocating him, that gave them life. That drive right before half, that gave them life.

"We were doing everything really, really well, but he gets outside of the pocket, makes a few plays and then listen, to give a quarterback confidence there's nothing like being able to throw a 7-yard hitch route out there and there was a couple of those that went 30-40 plus. The one went longer than that. So, you've got to own those things, we have to be better at them. Those are plays that we didn't make, but no, it dosen't look like last year. There's a lot that's improved, and we've obviously got to put it all together."

Watch the full postgame press conference here and read a full transcript of Riley's comments:

RELATED: Interviews with USC players after the win at Colorado | Join the postgame discussion on our Trojan Talk board

Opening comments ...

"Listen, fired up to get the win. Guys played a really good first half. That was probably the best first half we've played all year here against a good opponent in a tremendous atmosphere. We give Colorado, their fans, everybody a lot of credit. It was a really tremendous road atmosphere. Even when we got up, they kind of kept it loud in there and I felt like kind of kept their team in it in a lot of ways. Didn't play very good second half really on any of the three sides. Penalties, obviously we had one turnover, missed tackles, we did the things that you don't do when you're trying to finish out a good opponent on the road. So, excited about the good, a lot that we've got to correct. That's college football, that's how it goes. So, plenty to correct. I am excited about, I thought our operation and response on the road and some of what we learned last week showed up, and we did several things on both sides much better, but obviously we've got a lot of work to continue to do. So, we're going to own the win, we're going to own the mistakes, we're going to own the good, we're going to go back to work and get ready to get home in the Coli."

What changed after you were up 41-14?

"You know, they made plays and we kind of didn't. We had opportunities on all three sides. We had opportunities to finish some plays offensively, we had opportunities to get the quarterback down, we had opportunities to tackle hitches for a 5-yard gain and the things that we did in the first half. Listen, when you stop doing that, especially on the road against a team that has some talent like they do, they're going to make a run and they did. It's self-inflicted errors. Give them credit, they made some really tremendous competitive plays, couple plays where our guys were right there and they made the plays. That's when you have two good teams and really good individual players out there, that's what it comes down to are those competitive plays, and we certainly didn't make as many and had a lot of mental errors in the second half, so a lot to work on."

The talent is improved on defense but the problems are the same, what do you attribute that to?

"Yeah, it's not really the same issues, though. I don't agree with it. I feel like even right now when something doesn't go our way -- we're five games in, we're taking that litmus test right now -- when something doesn't go our way it doesn't look like last year. Not to the trained eye, not to a coach. Now, we've still got plenty to correct and there's two things today that absolutely when we weren't good killed us, and that was we didn't do a good job of keeping the quarterback in the pocket -- because really we were suffocating him, that gave them life. That drive right before half, that gave them life. We were doing everything really, really well, but he gets outside of the pocket, makes a few plays and then listen, to give a quarterback confidence there's nothing like being able to throw a 7-yard hitch route out there and there was a couple of those that went 30-40 plus. The one went longer than that. So, you've got to own those things, we have to be better at them. Those are plays that we didn't make, but no, it dosen't look like last year. There's a lot that's improved, and we've obviously got to put it all together."

All year Colorado has had trouble running the ball until today -- what do you attribute that to, and why did USC have trouble running the ball?

"Yeah, they obviously RPO'd us some in the run game. They did commit to it a lot more than they have in the previous games, and so we'll obviously have to go back and look at the tape, but they put you in some of those positions where it's either going to be one-on-one on the perimeter if you get those extra hats to the run game or you're going to give them potentially favorable numbers in the box. You've got to be able to control the line of scrimmage and make some of those. We had some missed tackles in the backfield a couple times when they came out, and I thought, I give them credit, they were a lot more patient and stayed with it more than they have certainly in previous games and I thought they did a good job staying with it even when we got way up. Yeah, running the ball, we weren't great on the offensive line, I didn't think. We didn't play our best game up front. We missed a couple of holes, I didn't think I called it very in the run game, so it was just not a very good effort by the O-line, the backs or me."

You've talked about the trust that Alex Grinch is the right guy for the job, after the past couple of weeks do you still have that same faith in him?

"Yes, I do."

Does it mean more that you won in a tough place and you had to hold on?

"You'd obviously love to finish it and separate more, but you put yourself in those moments and you get used to the adversity a little bit as a team because it's coming. I mean, listen, it's coming. You never know exactly what week it's going to be where you're not at your best, and I think the guys going through some of this together, especially with our roster continuing to change over quite a bit right now is very important. Listen, this is road football and this is a tremendous atmosphere. Listen, we're a team that gets circled every single week, so yeah, to come win these on the road, you find a way because I promise you at the end of the year, nobody's going to look back on this and care, right? They're going to look back and see it was a W, so hopefully we can keep stacking these up."

What did you think of De'jon Benton's impact?

"Man, I'm still mad at him for the last penalty, so I'm trying to block that out of my mind. Yeah, no, he was active, he was. He was active, noticed him in the backfield quite a bit. I'm proud of that kid. That's one of the kids in our program you point to the culture that you're building, I don't have a hard time saying, De'jon, when we got here, I didn't know if he was going to make it. I mean, I just didn't know if he was going to make it with the rigors of the program, the demands, the accountability, I didn't know if he was going to make it academically -- not because of his capability but just he hadn't quite found himself. We had a very up and down year with him last year, a lot of hard love and a lot of tough love, some moments where he wavered. But man, I've been really proud of him as of late. It's funny, it's when you kind of get all your life in order, it's all a sudden his grades are good, he's on time for stuff, he's playing good ball, he's starting to climb, he's battled back from some injuries. He's one of the guys you point to, especially one of the guys that were holdovers, right -- not somebody we brought in -- that's really latched onto it. It's been cool to see his transformation."