I wouldn't say the defense was horrible, wouldn't say it was great. We will see if indeed more press coverage is coming as Grantham said in a recent presser. Biggest complaint I have is no 3 and outs.
IF the EJ we saw Saturday is indeed who EJ is AND Mullen forces him to start no matter what I agree with 8 wins at best. I do believe Jones can be better, but can't say how much. I do believe at some point if Lawrence is coming after Kelly, you play Lawrence even if undefeated. Or if Hurts isn't getting it done in the Natty, you put in Tua. Big coaches make those big calls. With that said, Jones had some good plays we forgot because he had some horrible, terrible decisions such as the picks and the QB sneak from the 4.
Tripping was on a first down. Re-watch, we were in the backfield even if he hadn't done that it would probably been a loss on that play. That was FAU's first drive where we hit Perry as he was throwing. It arguably could have been called intentional grounding. The second drive was a strip sack we recovered. The third drive was a high pass on 3rd as we were coming, coverage was also tight, they went for it on 4th and we stopped Posey for no gain. The 4th and final drive of the half had an intentional grounding for the long pass (same thing Brady got hit with in the Super Bowl a few years back) and was second and 15. The next three plays were tight coverage throwaway on 2nd down, 10 yard completion on 3rd down (screen where we played deeper due to time left in half), and 4th was an incompletion where Cox was in Perry's face forcing him to throw off the back foot.
A 134 first half was good and our kids deserve some credit. You can simultaneously not like Grantham and give the kids credit for strip sacks and QB pressure. I do believe a great complaint is the failure to get a 3 and out in the first half.