The Defense looks better yes, but its against inferior competition.
Its not as if it completely shut down a bad SJSU team and an inferior FCS opponent.
Further the defense from last year couldn't possibly get worse so improvement was expected.
A huge improvement on D is necessary if the O is going to take this big of a step backwards.
None of the above is an excuse for the lousy attendance other than that is what this fan base is, unfortunately.
Attendance between 40-50k (I know, too much to ask) would have resulted in a wider margin of victory vs SBU.
These players were flat and attendance had a lot to do with it.