Its like a suspected. Your 3 defenders seriously lack passing options. When in possession , they are isolated form the rest of the team once being put under pressure. They have being given the instruction to " play out of defence no matter you think os the best option "( shortest of passes and no creative freedom), so they will try to do this. When being but under pressure, they will pass the ball from one defender to another at the same time as the rest of the team moves forward, in the end resulting in that they won't have a passing option. Here, they will hoof the ball upfield.
The same goes for your wingbacks. They have one of the most important roles in the tactic, yet they get isolated out wide told to play it really, really safe, just getting the ball to a player really close to them.
When using this " play out of defence", it can only be done if the team moves upfield as a unit, not here. My suggestion would be NOT to use this option.
Regarding the other players, its because they are not on short passing but on mixed along with lots of t-balls so they are told to do use more risk for the award.