Arizona State had 'too many critical errors' against Oregon State

At the end of the day, the Oregon State Beavers played a more disciplined game against the Arizona State Sun Devils, at least according to head coach Todd Graham during his Monday press conference.

"Obviously, last week after looking at the film, you have to give Oregon State a lot of credit. They have a really good football team; a really disciplined team. They dominated the game defensively in the second half. We had too many critical errors and gave up too many big plays defensively. They are a very good football team. We lost to a very good football team."

The Sun Devils will go from a defensive showcase put on by the Beavers to one of the most explosive offenses in the country featuring some of the best players at their respective positions in the USC Trojans. Whenever the likes of Matt Barkley and Marqise Lee come to town, your defense will have to be ready to try to keep them under the 40 points they can put up on any given Saturday.

"This week we are looking at USC coming off of the Oregon game from last week where they were very impressive offensively. They have big-play capabilities, great personnel, great football team and a great opportunity for us, so we are looking forward to it this week."

Graham was clear that his team is not mistake-prone but did have a couple of costly mental errors against the Beavers. Those are situations that shouldn't be arising this late in the season and with so much on the line in each game.

"There were really only two plays in the game. I'm not a big excuse maker. That's our job. We blew two coverages. We've blown seven coverages all year and two in that game. You shouldn't have those this time of year. That was just a miscommunication on both of them. They didn't get very simple communication and it cost us 14 points, but they (OSU) also executed."

Heading into their game against the Trojans, the Sun Devils have lost three straight after a 5-1 start. All three losses have come at the hands of Pac-12 opponents.