Clearly the formula for success is running the ball as much as possible and hitting short passes to keep defenses honest.
While he's no Tom Brady, Athan is light years better than what we had at QB last year and we're fortunate to have him. Truth is we really don't need him to be great, we just need hm to be mediocre to win. That said, there is a glaring weakness that has become apparent two games in and teams will exploit it going forward.
Specifically, Athan is really not good under pressure. Neither is about 98% of QBs out there, but he's really made some shaky throws under duress. This means opposing DCs will start resorting to sending pressure more frequently. Howard sent some run-blitzes and stuffed us a few times in short yardage situations. Their pass D just wasn't very good to capitalize. Akron figured this out pretty quickly and sent pressure on early downs to stop the run and again on 3rd and long. Their DBs were better and got their hands on a few balls. Those 3rd down pressures exposed Athan a little bit as he made some dangerous throws that would've been picked by better competition.
A good amount of this bye week has to be spent on blitz audibles and route adjustments. They need a way to quickly get the ball out of Athan's hands when pressure is coming without asking him to do something he is clearly not good at, which is making quick reads and throwing outside the hashmarks. He has the arm strength, but lacks the pinpoint accuracy on those types of throws to place the ball where only the WR can get it. And if you're off even a little bit, it's going the other way. However, he is much more accurate throwing inside the hash. KC needs to work this into their pressure adjustments bc those risky outside throws will prove costly in conference play.
