TUCSON, Ariz. -- As the USC players filed out of the locker room Saturday night, they didn't hold back or temper their reactions. They were frustrated, mad and candid.

This was a win on paper, a 24-20 victory on the road over Pac-12 South foe Arizona, but the collective feeling was not one of satisfaction leaving the stadium.

"Individually, in my head, I'm sick. It doesn't feel like a win," linebacker Cameron Smith said. "But we talked about it in the locker room, it's tough to win on the road and we've got to work on finishing games and stuff."

Said wide receiver Michael Pittman: "I'm not too happy, to be honest with you, because I feel like the game should have been way different. But we got a Pac-12 South win, which is what we needed to do tonight. We're going to come back and we're going to look hard at this film and just figure out what we need to do."

There will be plenty to dissect, starting with the 18 penalties for 169 yards and moving right on to the recurring snapping issues that led to one fumble in the red zone and nearly caused another turnover. Not to mention two other late fumbles that made this game, like Pittman said, "way different" than it should have been.

And yet, the Trojans still won -- and really, were never truly in peril. Somehow.

The tone was set for USC's ugly and stunningly-sloopy victory by a pair of sequences heading into and coming out of halftime.

First, the Wildcats faced a fourth-and-1 from their own 45 with 5 seconds on the clock, looking destined to go into the half scoreless as they had not yet even crossed midfield in the game. USC tried to help, though, drawing two penalties -- including a facemask downfield -- on what should have been a harmless completion, setting up an untimed down and a 38-yard field goal try. Only it didn't matter as Marvell Tell III blocked the kick for the Trojans.

Then, early in the third quarter, USC forced a quick Arizona punt on the opening series of the half, only to to collect 22 more penalty yards on two separate flags to back the start of the drive all the way to the 8-yard line.

But again, the Trojans' sloppiness didn't matter. Aca'Cedric Ware took four straight handoffs for 14, 6, 3 and then 69 yards straight into the end zone, shedding a trailing tackler on his way to a wide open lane down the right sideline for a commanding 24-0 lead.

The bottom line was no matter how many times USC undermined itself Saturday night -- and it sure tried -- the Trojans (3-2, 2-1 Pac-12) were never truly in jeopardy against the Wildcats (2-3, 1-1).

In the end, USC got all the scoring it needed in reeling off those 24 straight points to open the game while doing just enough to hold on the rest of the way, but the Trojans sure managed to take the shine off what could have been a dominant, lopsided win.

"I love all wins, but our team is a realistic team," coach Clay Helton said. "To be up like we were in that game and to allow a good team to come back, we needed to finish the game and that didn't happen."

Said quarterback JT Daniels: "You can't be too mad when you get a win, but I'm pretty mad. There's a lot of things that we can do better, and I guess that's a positive in a way too -- we're nowhere near our potential."

RELATED: Watch video interviews with USC players and coaches after the win at Arizona

Ware played the starring role for USC with 173 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns on 21 carries, while Daniels finished 16-of-24 passing for 197 yards, 0 TDs and 0 interceptions and Stephen Carr added 80 rushing yards. USC finished with 450 offensive yards in all.

All the while, the Trojans defense held Arizona and quarterback Khalil Tate in check for much of the night.

By the time USC took that 24-0 lead early in the third quarter, the visitors had outgained the Wildcats, 373 yards to 129.

Again, this should have been much easier for the Trojans given where things stood at that point.

But Tate -- who finished with 232 yards passing, 2 TDs and an INT with 38 rushing yards -- gave the Wildcats late life, getting the hosts on the scoreboard with a 33-yard touchdown pass to Stanley Berryhill III midway through the third quarter and then throwing a beautiful 32-yard end zone strike to Cedric Peterson to make it a 24-14 game with 9:34 remaining.

The Trojans then gave Arizona yet more help in the final minutes of the game with -- get this -- a 15-yard sideline penalty (an official ran into a coach), two pass interference penalties on cornerback Iman Marshall and an offsides penalty for zero yards as a bonus because there was nowhere further to move the Wildcats.

Arizona still needed four more downs from the 1 to finally punch it in with 1:40 left, only to miss the extra point to take away the chance for a potential game-tying field goal -- naturally. Not that it mattered anyway, as USC recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.

Again, as sloppy as they played and as ugly as this got down the stretch, the Trojans were still never truly threatened as the dysfunction permeated both sidelines Saturday night.

They had taken control early, going 90 yards on 12 plays on their second possession of the game. Daniels hit Pittman for 20 yards on third-and-13 to get the drive going, tight end Josh Falo ripped off a 37-yard catch and run, Velus Jones Jr. made an incredible catch in traffic at the goal line for a 19-yard gain on third-and-10 and Vavae Malepeai punched it in for his sixth touchdown of the season.

It was one of the most impressive drives this offense has produced all season.

USC didn't capitalize on all of its chances, but again it didn't matter on this night.

Tell nabbed the Trojans' first interception of the season to set up possession at the Arizona 32 early in the second quarter. Fittingly,, a holding penalty on the next play mitigated the good field position and USC would ultimately settle for a 42-yard Michael Brown field goal.

USC then overcame a 15-yard illegal block penalty on another second-quarter scoring drive, eventually converting on fourth-and-2 with a 26-yard Ware touchdown scamper as the senior back went untouched around the right side.

The Trojans could have made it even more lopsided on their next possession when Daniels hit Amon-Ra St. Brown for 20 yards and Carr followed with a 24-yard run to the Wildcats' 13. But very little came easy on this night. On the next play, center Toa Lobendahn, who had multiple snap issues a week ago, snapped the ball before Daniels was ready, resulting in a lost fumble and missed opportunity.

A bad snap in the third quarter would lead to another near fumble, but Daniels was able to get his knee down with possession of the ball on that one.

The young QB would later cough up a fumble on a sack late in the third quarter, giving Arizona the ball 32 yards from the end zone and setting up Tate's first touchdown toss on the next play. And Falo lost another USC fumble with 8:23 left to play, after fighting for extra yards just across midfield.

This one was ugly, plain and simple.

In the end, the Trojans nonetheless picked up a crucial road win and now have back-to-back victories.

But they still also have plenty to shore up before some of the tougher games remaining on their schedule. Plenty.

"Luckily it goes into the column as a win so we're going to take it and run with it, but we've got to get better fast," Smith said. "We're just not executing on little things that I think we can, and we have a really talented group, but we've got to push a sense of urgency these next two weeks and really focus on getting better."