When I start thinking about a subject, could be work, personal or football random questions pop up in my head. So I started thinking about defending the screen pass and I wondered if there were any stats that show teams' effectiveness against the screen specifically. I did a superficial search and didn't find those stats. If anybody is interested and finding that data I'd appreciate them sharing it here.
What I did find was a link to the Joe Daniels Football System which lays out how he coaches offensive and defensive schemes. So I asked myself, "Self, who is Joe Daniels?" Self had no answer so I Googled it. This is the answer I received.
Joe Daniels was a football coach in the National Football League (NFL) from 1983 to 1991, finishing his career as the quarterbacks coach of the Cleveland Browns. Take it for what it's worth.
Anyway, this coach says that screens are an extension of the run game, the crux of defending the screen is by run fits. At first, this seemed a little counterintuitive but essentially his system says that DL recognition is a key to stopping screens. I'll leave the details in the link I'm including here.
Defending the screen passThere is an embedded podcast on that page as well that might be interesting to some.
