Defenses are capable of scoring points (off turnovers, safety penalties, etc). Defenses are also capable of stopping the other team from scoring (to use an extreme example, I think if BYU won a 3-0 game, we'd all agree that the defense was the unit that "won" the game).

It's commonly accepted that defenses can win games. Taking the opposite position is misinformed and strikes me as picking an argument for argument's sake.

To reiterate (since you eye-rolled my original post almost instantly - way too quickly to have read it in full), the offense deserves the blame for the loss against Boise game, but the frustration with the defense stems from their apparent inability to win games.