How PFF College graded USC's defense vs. Washington

There was the long 89-yard touchdown run, which helped complete a devastating third-quarter swing for USC, but the Trojans' defense largely did its part in the 28-14 loss at Washington.

USC held the Huskies to 373 yards overall -- which was their second-lowest total of the season and well below their season average of 461.8 coming into the day -- and forced a big fumble in the fourth quarter.

The Trojans did particularly well in containing Huskies QB Jacob Eason, who completed 16 of 26 passes for 180 yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs and 2 sacks.

Eason was averaging 265.8 passing yards per game and had thrown for at least 3 touchdown in three of the first four games.

Credit the Trojans' young secondary, which was without top safety Talanoa Hufanga (concussion/shoulder) and cornerback Olaijah Griffin (back).

"I thought the corners did a good job of covering. He's a very good arm talent guy. I think we were changing up some of the coverages and giving him some different pictures, and I thought from a plan standpoint, the things we were trying to get done for the secondary they seemed to execute pretty well based on the numbers," defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast said.

The big play the Trojans would like back, obviously, was Salvon Ahmed's 89-yard touchdown that came two plays after USC QB Matt Fink's back-breaking interception in the end zone. That momentum shift took the Trojans from possibly making it a one-score game to trailing 28-7.

"There was one run for 89 yards. Other than that, I think the leading rusher would have had about 60 yards. So they did a nice job and they made a few plays, but if you take one big run out of there it's a little bit different," Pendergast said.

The big plays like that so far this season will be Pendergast's focus during the bye week, he said.

"We're going to go back and look at the cut-ups and look at the things that have been done against us -- look at the runs over 10, the passes over 20, just normal things -- and try to see where we're at," he said.

Meanwhile, here's how PFF College evaluated the USC defense vs. Washington:

RELATED: How PFF College graded the USC offense vs. Washington

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