Should Alabama send Skalski a Thank You note?
 

It was obvious Justin Fields ribs were bothering him all night long. They did not want to run him as much as Ohio State ran him against Clemson early in the game. Then when Sermon was injured, all bets were off. The Buckeyes' running game was going to be ineffective.

However, even with Sermon out, a healthy Fields in the running game still would have kept Bama guessing and would have put pressure on their defense when the Buckeyes ran the ball. Instead, the defensive ends were crashing down on the running backs on pretty much every running play.

Re: Should Alabama send Skalski a Thanks You note?
 

Yep Skalski proved prominent in the OSU game plan. Now is believe Bama would have beaten a full speed Fields but a 75% Fields had no chance.

In other news, OSUs inability to keep their players from getting COVID hasn’t been mentioned enough. Bama and Clemson largely went through the season without having COVID outbreaks yet OSU had what 3? Part of that is probably because Bama/Clemson had outbreaks over the summer but it is clear that OSU’s protocols were ineffective.

Re: Should Alabama send Skalski a Thanks You note?
 

Your point about the summer is probably key...I don't know the full numbers, but I think we had a decent number catch it in the summer, which helped keep our numbers lower during the season. Not that that excludes OSU from a little judgement of their COVID policies, but it isn't a pure apples-apples comparison between different teams.

Re: Should Alabama send Skalski a Thanks You note?
 

He did the same to Burrow at the end of the first half last year. Both QBs almost were knocked out of the game.