The use of the screen pass has been a point of emphasis in Sean McVay’s offense since the return of Puka Nacua. In fact, one could say the screen jumpstarted the Rams’ season when Sean McVay used it to expose Minnesota’s defense in Week 8.
Since the 30-20 victory over the Vikings, the Rams have won five of their last seven games and are have a great shot to win the NFC West.
Nacua is such a dangerous weapon with the ball in his hands due to his shifty feet and desire to initiate contact. The use of the screen allows offensive linemen to explode out of their stance as if the Rams are running the ball but instead of blocking big defensive linemen, they can bypass them, hunting for linebackers and defensive backs in the secondary.
Rather than trying to create holes in a standard run play, the screen uses misdirection to create natural vacancies, while offensive linemen are able to attack the second level of defenses before defenders get a chance to stop the linemen at the point of attack.
Sean McVay broke down how his use of screens operates within the structure of his offense.
“I think because there’s some relief on the offensive line and in some instances, you don’t take for granted how difficult some of the arm slot changes are for the quarterback, there’s not as much mental toll,” he said. “I think it has a lot of benefits to be able to slow the rush. You can make it look like a lot of different things depending upon what type of screen you’re talking about. The ones that we had yesterday with Puka I thought were critical plays to be able to get good, efficient ones. Some of them are on early downs, the one that we’re talking about was kind of in a second down-and-10-plus situation. They’re really important to be able to get that off. I think fully functional offenses have different parts of their pass game and run game that they can efficiently activate based on what is needed within that game. I thought that was reflected yesterday with some good execution on a couple of those screens in particular.”
However, the screen doesn’t just automatically work out of nowhere. It requires offensive linemen to have certain athletic skill sets that allow them to maintain balance while simultaneously displaying explosiveness.
McVay spoke about how Steve Avila and Kevin Dotson display those qualities.
“I think that’s the benefit of having really functional, athletic guards that have an incredible ability to be able to move and accelerate in space and be able to have close-quarters contact with people,” he said. “When you do have guys like that, that’s a real benefit where you’re saying, ‘What can’t they do?’ I think you’ve seen it and you’ve mentioned it a little bit. We’ve been able to get some of our outside zone hitting run plays going. You can’t get those plays going if you don’t have guys that have the ability to be able to reach, cut off, and then be able to finish on second-level angles of departure. Both ‘K-Dot’ and Steve can do that in the run game with different ways of being fully functional. In the screen game, I think you’ve seen their athleticism displayed. ‘K-Dot’ had two, but Steve had a key block on that play as well that went viral for Puka on the screen.”
Watch Rams RG Dotson here!!! Two knockdowns in space. Like a bowling bowl just knocking over defenders. pic.twitter.com/763vHAOqcs
— Geoff Schwartz (@geoffschwartz) December 13, 2024
With Tyler Higbee set to make his season debut next week and the Rams’ rushing attack finally starting to hit it’s peak, we could see more screen passes that do not involve Nacua in the future. However if the Rams need to call a “gotta have it” play, the ball is going to Nacua and he’ll have some of the NFL’s best protectors escorting him through traffic.
