What are the running back's duties during a screen pass? The running back is supposed to help sale the screen pass as a true passing play. In a sport dominated by huge and enormous athletes, the difference...
In a sport dominated by huge and enormous athletes, the difference between winning and losing in a football game can often be defined in the smallest of forms. For pass routes, if a wide receiver is off by one second, the throw from the quarterback could end up incomplete or even worse, intercepted.
When it comes to the offensive linemen, jumping just a second too soon can result in a false start penalty ultimately ending any possibility of positive yards on play. And in the kicking game, if a defender breaks through and gets an inch closer to the kicker than he has before, that small fraction of distance could result in a blocked kick or punt.
But one of the few plays in a football game that depend both on timing and distance for them to be successful is the screen pass. Screen passes are used mainly against aggressive defenses. The purpose of the screen pass is to use the aggressiveness of the defense against them hopefully slipping a running back out of the backfield and open for a pass.
Stanley Conner is the offensive coordinator and running backs coach for Alabama A&M. Before joining the Bulldog staff, Conner was a four-year letterman at Jackson St. University where he helped the Tigers earn four Southwestern Athletic Conference titles. Following graduation, Conner played with the New Orleans Breakers of the USFL and the Ottawa Rough Riders of the CFL before settling down into his coaching role. Conner said that when run properly, the screen pass can pay big dividends for the offense.
"The screen pass is just another way of slowing down the defense," Conner said. "So what the offense does is, they simulate a pass. The defense rushes up the feel and the running back slips out the backfield."
While everyone has huge responsibilities to make a screen pass work, the running back's duties are probably the most important. More times than not, a linebacker on the defense will be responsible for covering the running back out of the backfield. If the linebacker is able to determine that the play is a screen pass early on, the play could and likely will end up as a huge loss or an interception.
So what makes this play work is the cover job that the running back does in the backfield. During most passing plays, the running back will either stay in the backfield to block, or run out in the passing routes when the ball is snapped. But on a screen pass, the running back waits, allowing the defensive pressure to get in the backfield towards the quarterback. Once the pressure is by the offensive lineman, the running back then turns and awaits a pass from the quarterback. Right about now is when two or three offensive linemen are getting out in front of the running back to block for him. If run properly, this play can result in a huge gain of yards. But, as we stated earlier, turn and show that it is a screen too soon, and the linebacker could end up doing a touchdown dance going in the other direction.
"The running back can sale this play a little bit more by making it look like a true pass," Conner added. "One rule of thought for a running back is that you never cross a defensive lineman's face, always run behind him. If you run in front of him, he's going to follow you."
