Skull Session: Julian Fleming's Forced Fumble, Joe Burrow Gets Buckeye Love, and BuckeyeThon Raises $2.2 Million

Apologies for the late Skull Session, everyone. My beautiful wife and I got hit with an extremely sudden family tragedy yesterday that we were (and very much still are) working through.

Prayers and thoughts are certainly appreciated, and you have my word that your typo-ridden morning dispatch will be on schedule tomorrow.

Word of the Day: Lachrymose.

NOT BAD. Not even the most optimistic among us would have been able to fully appreciate this stat in the immediate aftermath of Saturday's showing, but there's a chance two days is long enough.

Justin Fields: 300 pass Yds
Master Teague III: 169 rush Yds
Garrett Wilson: 169 rec Yds

It's the first time in @OhioStateFB history where they had a 300-yard passer, 150-yard rusher and 150-yard WR in a game pic.twitter.com/hZDwThSZeK
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) November 21, 2020

Three picks from the quarterback who doesn't even throw incompletions wasn't exactly a fun turn of events, but suddenly being able to run the ball against a top-20 defense in the country was a decent tradeoff.

Next time, let's try doing both good things?

BE DIFFERENT. One of Ohio State's best defensive plays of the game on Saturday actually came on offense, which epitomizes everything about that performance.

Instead of just standing around in shock after Justin Fields heaved his third (3rd) interception of the game, Julian Fleming turned on the jets, chased the ball-carrier down, and got the damn ball back.

It was awesome, and it turns out, it wasn't just a fluke response. It's a culture thing.

Before the season, we showed the offense this clip of @YoungKing_JD5 chasing down an INT a few years back...and yesterday @julian_040 (playing the same pos) did the same selfless thing..

Players graduate, Culture doesnt change!
BE DIFFERENT
- @brianhartline #Zone6 pic.twitter.com/LfkJQYf5Ql
— Keenan Bailey (@CoachKee) November 22, 2020

Shades of Maurice Clarett, too.

At the time, this didn't seem like a huge deal in the final outcome because it still looked like the Buckeyes were gonna pull it out relatively comfortably. But when you look back, Ohio State only won by 7. This play very much could have been the difference.

THE BROTHERHOOD. In what felt like an inevitability to anyone who's watched a single second of Bengals football this year, Cincinnati's offensive line really did get Joe Burrow destroyed this week.

But his Buckeye brothers were there to pick up the pieces.

Terry McLaurin on why he, Chase Young and Dwayne Haskins wanted to say something to Joe Burrow before he left the field: "Still got that Ohio State brotherhood... Under that jersey, you still got that Block O close to your heart."
— John Keim (@john_keim) November 22, 2020

All love for Joe Burrow as he goes off the field. Including from Chase Young, Haskins, McLaurin pic.twitter.com/t42duvQWIQ
— JP Finlay (@JPFinlayNBCS) November 22, 2020

Love u bro. Get well soon @JoeyB https://t.co/1Sr2d1o21Q
— Dwayne Haskins, Jr (@dh_simba7) November 22, 2020

Prayers up, Joey B. And know the the Buckeyes always have your back.

FOR THE KIDS. A massive 24-hour dance party is not exactly in the cards during a global pandemic, so BuckeyeThon looked a little different this year with everything gone virtual.

Thankfully, the impact was still the same.

Through two DMs this year, we are proud to share that our 2020 impact is $2,228,067.16 For The Kids!

Thank you to all who joined our DM today and to all of you who made this possible.

We are glad we were able to come together to continue to fight for a cure.

For. The. Kids. pic.twitter.com/9gEjWkF1nA
— BuckeyeThon (@BuckeyeThon) November 22, 2020

Get dumped then, cancer.

LIFE COMES AT YOU FAST. BYU's trying in earnest to crash the College Football Playoff this year and I have to say I was sincerely rooting for them until now.

BYU, Saturday:

Any team, any time, any place. pic.twitter.com/Rs9ihEGfA8
— BYU FOOTBALL (@BYUfootball) November 21, 2020

BYU today:

SOURCES: #BYU turned down the opportunity to play #Washington this coming weekend. UDub had reached out yesterday but was told BYU wanted to wait until after the CFP rankings Tuesday to gauge their place. "It's off the table."
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) November 23, 2020

The irony here is that there's no way in hell they're going to make the College Football Playoff without this game, and they probably would have won anyway. So, they basically just punted their chances because they were afraid of losing.

You hate to see it.

SONG OF THE DAY. "Wildfire" by Seafret.