On top of that, they coach has to deal with players morale. If a passing play failed last time, the players may be wary of of another passing play. This gets

On top of that, they coach has to deal with players morale. If a passing play failed last time, the players may be wary of of another passing play. This gets worse if a pass play has failed a bunch that day. On top of that, you have to deal with player fatigue, risk of injury, etc... There are a lot of finite resources (or resources that don't replenish quickly) in real life games. In football as well (I don't know much about baseball), you may not go for maximum yards in each play. If its fourth down with 1 yard to go, you don't care about getting 12 yards, you one your 1 yard (usually). Assuming each play is like the previous is 100% false. Improperly applied theories are worse than human instinct. Properly applied theories can be better than human instinct.