Seattle Seahawks head coach and self-professed football nerd Mike Macdonald simply doesn’t perceive why any coach or staff would ignore the possibility to lean into knowledge and analytics.
“Why wouldn’t we use the perfect data on the market?” he mentioned throughout an interview this week on the Dan Patrick Present. “Why would you be scared about issues which might be going to presumably make it easier to?”
Macdonald referred to as himself a “psycho knowledge man” who wants “numbers and tendencies.” He has a brand new Tremendous Bowl ring to point out for his teaching fashion, however he’s additionally clear that whereas superior expertise and metrics could assist help the staff’s planning and in-game choices, they don’t drive these choices utterly.
“You don’t need to do what the numbers say,” Macdonald mentioned, including that variables comparable to how a sport goes, the texture in your personal staff, and intestine intuition can all cancel out knowledge recommendations.
That data-be-damned mentality got here into play at the start of last season when the Seahawks, dealing with a 4th-and-1 from the San Francisco 49ers’ 19-yard line, ignored the analytical mannequin that mentioned to go for it. Macdonald opted to kick a area aim for a three-point lead and ended up dropping when the 49ers got here again and scored a landing.
Seattle began 0-1 and 6 months later gained its second NFL title.
This yr, Seattle opens in opposition to the New England Patriots, the staff they beat 29-13 in Tremendous Bowl LX.
Macdonald hasn’t realized a lot but from that sport, as a result of he mentioned he’s solely watched it as soon as, by way of tape and never the usual TV broadcast.
“Are you fearful there’s a unique ending?” Patrick laughed.
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