...It's not Arod's fault if Retzlaff checked down or just locked on that guy because he was rattled and threw to the first guy he saw was open. It's like a 3rd and 2 we had vs SIU where Retzlaff threw a side-armed pass a little behind and away from Ropati out in the flat. The throw pulled Ropati just a half step off his route to adj to the off target throw which gave the closing defender enough time to close the distance and stop Ropati after a 1 yd gain. Had Retzlaff thrown the ball over the top and led Ropati (instead of slinging it sidearmed), Ropati would've gotten the edge and been able to turn upfield for some YAC and moved the chains.

That's not on Arod, that's poor execution by the QB. Now if Arod is too afraid to hold his inefficient QB accountable like other coaches do when they have players blowing assignments, blowing coverages etc then that is on him.