okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Process versus outcome...and the NY Giants
One of the key plays in last weekend's Giants game was a long pass by the Patriots to their star receiver, Randy Moss. Moss was wide open. The ball was a little underthown, but hit Moss in the hands. He dropped the ball. If Moss had caught the ball, it'd have been a huge play.
The very next play, the Patriots did the same thing. This time Moss caught the ball and scored a touchdown. It put the Patriots ahead and they went on to win the game.
The TV announcer said something like, "the Patriots went right back to the same play after it had failed."
But, if you think about process versus outcome, you'd have expected the announcer to say something like, "the Patriots went right back to the same play because it succeeded the first time - it got the receiver wide open and the quarterback put it on his hands...he was just unlucky and unable to hang on to the ball."
I suspect that the coaches and players for the Patriots were thinking about process rather than outcome. They probably thought, "wow that worked, let's do it again and Moss will catch it."
I wonder if the Giants coaches and players were thinking outcome instead of process. They probably thought, "they tried an all-or-nothing play and got nothing - now the Patriots will be worried."
