Stop making excuses for the defense

Too many people are giving the defense a pass, even praising them for holding Ole Miss to 24 pts. bullshite, this was a team loss on both sides.
People are saying "Ole Miss ran 81 plays to our 55, the defense was gassed"... let's look at that, shall we? It will be painful.

First half, we hold them to 3 and out on their first 2 possessions, and after 2 possessions apiece we are up 7-0. They take the kickoff at their own 10 yd line. 1st down no gain, 2nd down they get 4. It's 3rd and 6 from the 14, and we have all the momentum. We don't hold... that becomes an 18 play, 83 yd drive for a FG. No plays over 13 yds, no penalties on us, just methodical moving. The convert 3 3rd downs on that drive before we held at the 7.

Next possession we force a punt on 5 plays. We still lead 7-3.

Next possession they go 70 yds, again no penalties. 23 yd pass on 1st down. We get to 3rd and 11, they get a 16 yd pass to convert. Next play, they hit a 32 yd pass, but luckily we cause a fumble for a touchback on the play.

We punt again, still up 7-3. They have 1st down at the 30. Penalty on them gives them 1st and 20 at the 20. We get huge pressure, would have been intentional grounding around the 10... and Weeks does his stupid penalty pushing the QB down after the play. Should have been 2nd and 30, instead 1st down Ole Miss at the 35. We get to 3rd and 10 at the 35, offsides so 3rd and 5 at the 40. 12 yd pass on 3rd down. A play for 4 yds, then back to back 15 yd pass interference on us, 1st down at the 15. They run 15 yds for the TD on 1st down.
We are now down 10-7.

That's your play differential right there. An extremely long drive on the 3rd possession, when everyone should be fresh; and a 70 TD drive on what should have been a disaster of an Ole Miss possession, fueled by 50 fricking yds in penalties.
And that's not taking into account the fact they flew down the field the drive before, and we luckily forced a fumble before they scored.

Then their last series of the first half- they start at the 31. 9 plays including overcoming a holding penalty (1st and 18), they convert a 4th down, then with 15 seconds and them on the 2, we don't line up correct. They have 3 WRs to the right, we only have 2 defenders covering them. They hit the wide open guy for the TD, to make it 17-7.

No, the offense absolutely didn't help at that point. Nuss was horrible, getting guys killed.
But- 18 play drive on the 3rd possession, without any penalties... that's just getting rolled. Stupid roughing penalty on 1st and 20, and going to be grounding, that's inexcusable. It was clearly a shove after the play, not live action.
And not getting lined up correctly and covering WRs with under 15 seconds at the goal line... also unacceptable.

That's not even addressing the 2nd half at all.