CLEMSON -- Clemson fans who have grown weary of bubble screens may have found a messiah in Rebekah Wolfe, a 79-year-old grandmother from Gaffney who regularly calls in to Dabo Swinney's weekly radio show.

Swinney has given her the name "Bubble Becky" because she so frequently takes issue with the frequent horizontal throws in Clemson's offense.

Some coaches out there might see to it that such public criticism, even tongue-in-cheek, gets muted. Or, ahem, screened.

Swinney plays the part and seems to enjoy the back-and-forth banter with Bubble Becky.

Yet the surface-level dissatisfaction with screens, from Becky and plenty others, invites a deeper dig to provide a better understanding of a play that is foundational to the offense.

When the screens don't work, it doesn't look good because usually that means at least one defender has beaten a block and tackled the receiver for no gain or lost yardage.

When they do work ... well, defining exactly what it means for a screen to "work" probably hits on the biggest misconception about the screen game itself.

Clemson's outside screen game looks similar to the screens that frustrated fans -- and maybe even Swinney himself -- to no end during Rob Spence's tenure as offensive coordinator from 2005 to mid-2008.

But it's fundamentally different now, in that the screens are part of the run-pass option game where before they were called plays featuring no option but to throw the ball to a receiver who is running behind the screens of at least one other receiver.