It is bad. But also good.

He is way too fancy. He tries to do too much. His philosophy is the opposite of the do 1 play 1000 times saying. He overthinks his playcalling in predictable ways. He and Kalani share a “situational stubbornness” I’ll touch on later. There are many times that he makes the wrong call at the wrong time. Too many times.

However
There are times they work. This is because they are called in the correct situation.
#1: 4:05 Q4, 4th and 1 on a critical drive. SMU has a stacked box, with no one to the left. Cougs in a 12 personnel package with Davis lined up on the strong side. WR motions through, taking the corner with him. Fake jet sweep, speed option to the weak side. Perfect play call. Speedster Davis is able to turn the corner and get 37 yards.
This only works because of ARod’s fancy eyecandy.
#2: 1st and 10, don’t remember when. 4th String back is in. Back in that 12 personal package with Nawahine lined up on the strong side. This time they setup a counter play. Good chunk yardage, getting the line to crossblast a hole down the middle. It’s a simple run for your new back. He has fresh legs against SMU’s tired second level. He gets to bruise his way for 9 yards on his first carry. A great change of pace at a perfect time. Something unexpected from his fancy bag of tricks.

We know that his plays can work, it just has to be in the right situation. I wish there was more active playcalling, more audibles available. This brings me to the one instance of RPO we saw tonight.
#3: Retzlaff is looking rattled. We need a good drive to get us in field goal range. So ARod simplifies the game. Retzlaff has 3 options - Hand the ball off, tuck and run, or hit Roberts on a slant. Roberts, being the great route runner he is, gets open, the catch, and the first down. Simple read, simple throw. Why can’t we be doing more of this? This is what the high level teams are doing right now, and for good reason. It makes preplay reads much more versatile. High IQ quarterbacks can tinker with routes based on what they see, and while options are there, they don’t need to be used. Retzlaff clearly needs less to process right now. Giving him one read puts us in a much better spot.

ARod needs to get out of his own way and just call the right play (easier said than done). He should focus on how to use his own players instead of creating the perfect Xs and Os.