Stealing Yardage with Fast Screens

By D.J. Mann
Offensive Coordinator
Crosby High School (TX) 
Twitter: @Thamannjr

Just like everyone else in the nation we want our offense to fit the personnel we have. That said, we are going to make that happen within our overarching offensive philosophy.  For us as an airraid team, that meant helping the lineman with a fast pace, winning the line of scrimmage with the inside and outside zone play, and getting our players in space.  We feel that if we force defenses to play sideline to sideline, we are going to gain a conditioning and schematic advantage as the game goes on and the best way we were able to do that this past year was through implementing a comprehensive fast screen system.  The result were more than we could have expected.  In the end, we averaged 460 yards a game in district play and broke or tied 3 school offensive records.

The fast screens were essential to our success for multiple reasons, most important among them being their simplicity and their ability to get everyone on the offense involved. They are confidence throws for our QB.  Each play is an easy throw that can get your QB on rhythm. It is not a long distance throw so it is a simple catch and run for the receivers.  The plays don’t require the offensive line to over think, as they are taking an outside zone path to the left or right.  These factors all were magnified for us as a first year staff that needed to bring early success to the program.

Our Screens

Of course, the entire idea is the get the ball to our playmakers in space. We want to be in the 95% completion range running these screens.  Here is a look at each of the screens we employed this past year and the coaching points for each individual screen.

Z-Randy

Position Coaching Points:

• QB -Grip and Rip to the Z receiver.
• Z- Quick foot fire up field stick and Get outside. Goal is 6 yards.
• Y- Push up field one step and go cut the corner.
• F- Cheat up and out and cut the force player normally the OLB/SS.
• H- Mirror the screen or block man over you.
• X- Mirror the screen or block man over you.
• OL –(3 steps flat) PT – End, PG – P/S Safety, C – Farthest P/S backer in the box, B/S G – B/S backer to B/S Safety, B/S T – B/S Safety.

X - Larry

Position Coaching Points:

• QB- Grip and Rip to the X receiver.
• X- Quick foot fire up field stick and Get outside. Goal is 6 yards. LOS.
• H- Push up field one step and go cut the corner.
• F- Cheat up and out and cut the force player normally the OLB/SS.
• Y- Mirror the screen or block man over you.
• Z- Mirror the screen or block man over you.
• OL –(3 steps flat) PT – End, PG – P/S Safety, C – Farthest P/S backer in the box, B/S G – B/S backer to B/S Safety, B/S T – B/S Safety.

F – Randy