ROLLING OUT LIKE RUSSELL WILSON (OR PETE CARROLL’S BAD CALL)

 

At the end of the game during Super Bowl XLIX, Seattle Seahawks’ head coach, Pete Carroll’s decision to pass over the middle was a bad call. It doesn’t matter that he was a gambler, as posed by Rob Pait in last week’s post, “Requiem For a Gambler: Why Pete Carroll Wasn’t Wrong”, it was a bad call.

In case you did not see his article, you can read it here. I’ll use Mr. Pait’s own description of the scenario leading up to the bad call, “… As most of America knows, Pete Carroll is the coach of the Seattle Seahawks. In Sunday’s Super Bowl game against the New England Patriots, his team had a golden opportunity to win the game in the last minute. Near the goal line, he called a passing play for his team when “accepted wisdom” was to run the ball using their superstar back Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch …”

​There were other factors that changed this from a gutsy call to a bad one — below are my thoughts albeit as I play ‘Monday Morning Quarterback”, a luxury the coach on the field never has:

• The Seahawks had a timeout left, so had the option to run or pass without worrying about running out of time. I think a pass would be a good call since, with it being only second down, the Seahawks would have time for three tries to get that one yard.
• Russell Wilson is a versatile quarterback that could easily have rolled out and (a) run it in if he saw the opening, (b) thrown it in for a touchdown if there was an open receiver, or (c) thrown it away to simply stop the clock if the former two were not viable.
• Running back Lynch was averaging over four yards every carry and was only held at the line of scrimmage once, back on the Seahawks first possession – since then, the Pats could not stop him without a gain.

So, you use what’s available to you and what has succeeded against the opponent. Carroll went against this convention which proved to be his ultimate demise.

I agree with Mr. Pait’s acknowledgement that taking calculated risks that defy convention is often the right call. Well calculated ‘gambles’ are attributes of real leaders and can often make all of the difference. To work with leaders that fit this mode is fun and rewarding.
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I know this because TriAxis walks the path with true IT leaders – individuals that don’t want to follow convention simply because it’s the safe play. Folks that can think around corners and put excellence ahead of perceived permanence. Greg Folsom, SVP of IT at Arnold Worldwide, fits this mode and has saved his firm tremendous amounts of both CapEx and OpEx money while accelerating forward their infrastructure as it has aligned with corporate goals. He did this by ‘gambling’ on more advanced technology that was lesser known. The equivalent of Russell Wilson rolling out (not passing into traffic) on 2nd and goal from the one with a timeout, four points down and the Super Bowl on the line.

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Working with emerging brands is a gamble on both the technology resellers’ side as well as the end-users’. To do it in a way that ameliorates risk is to look at all sides of the equation – the classic “Ben Franklin List”, if you will. Developing this list collaboratively with the end-user and see if it is a “win win” situation with manageable risks.

To put it another way, if the risk reasonably could include an interception at the goal line, ruining the entire year and possibly causing a CLM (career limiting move), then the risk may be too high. But if you can roll out like Russell Wilson, keep the risk low and the reward high, then I say do it!
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Let me know what you think.
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Tom Mumford is Co-founder, CEO & CTO for TriAxis, Inc.

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