SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Back-to-back-to-back. It’s not a new Drake diss track, but it did come from a Wisconsin defender who was charged up. Redshirt sophomore linebacker Jack Cichy set records as he sacked redshirt senior USC quarterback Cody Kessler on three straight plays in the Badgers’ 23-21 win over the Trojans in the Holiday Bowl Wednesday.
It was the highest sack total for a player in Wisconsin bowl game history, let alone in one quarter, on one drive, on consecutive plays. He single-handedly shut down a drive by the Trojans as he refused to be stopped.
“What a game by Jack Cichy,” redshirt junior outside linebacker Vince Biegel said. “I’ve never seen back-to-back-to-back sacks, and it was fun to watch.”
It takes a pretty colossal failure by an offensive line to allow three straight sacks, but part of what brought it all together was great scouting and preparation by the Wisconsin defense. They found a weakness in USC’s pass protection, and they attacked it.
“Well on film, we saw that their A-gaps were open a lot on pass pro, so [defensive coordinator Dave] Aranda schemed up a lot of blitzes that attacked that deficiency,” Cichy said. “Honestly, once would be great, but three times is kind of just luck of the draw.”
Luck of the draw is a good way to describe it. The first sack should have been enough for the Trojans to adjust and fix it, but lo and behold, three straight times, Cichy broke through the offensive line unblocked.
Let’s go sack-by-sack to see how Cichy made history at the Holiday Bowl.
USC started its drive at midfield, good field position to try and drive down to take the lead. At the snap, Cichy takes off for the B-gap as the right guard and right tackle split for the play action zone run. By design, the tight end pulls to the backside to block, meeting Cichy near the line of scrimmage, in theory.
The offensive line splits and Cichy keeps his eyes on the ball to account for the play action. It’s a little hard to tell from the still picture, but redshirt junior USC tight end Taylor McNamara is slow on his pull, and Cichy is already ahead.
McNamara is still able to get to Cichy and make contact, but he barely gets a shoulder pad on the Wisconsin pass rusher as he just tries to bump him off his path.
Cichy hardly loses any of his momentum, and he gets a full-speed run at Kessler. The Trojan QB tries to spin and step out of it, but a good form tackle lets Cichy throw Kessler to the turf.
Technically, an illegal snap penalty came in between the linebacker’s first and second snap, but by all statistical measurements, penalties do not count as plays run.
Cichy’s second sack is exactly like he described. The A-gap is going to open right up as the right guard goes outside to block redshirt sophomore defensive end Chikwe Obasih, while the center blocks freshman nose tackle Olive Sagapolu to his left. This leaves a big hole for Cichy to charge through unblocked.
Sagapolu ends up being double teamed by the center and left guard, and on the outside, Biegel fakes his rush and drops back in coverage, so as Cichy goes through clean, USC ends up with five players blocking only three rushers.
Following the play action, the running back goes out to the flat for his route, and Cichy’s free run to the QB ends with another waist wrap-up and slam to the ground.
You might think that after letting the same linebacker go through the offensive line unblocked on two straight plays, the Trojans’ offensive line would figure it out and get a body on every rusher, but that simply wasn’t the case.
The third sack had the same idea as the second. This time, Cichy is even showing the A-gap pressure, but the right guard blocks right, and the center blocks left, laying out the red carpet for Cichy to enter the backfield once again.
When a team shows blitz like the Badgers do here, the offensive line will often change their protection to intentionally allow a defender through to be picked up by the running back. That happens here, but the other two linebackers bail out of the blitz, and Wisconsin rushes only four.
In that case, the center needs to be aware of the assignments of the guards on either side of him and be prepared to help, which does not happen here.
Aranda calls a stunt to the right side of the line, but it doesn’t make much of a difference as Cichy would have been clean through regardless. The USC center AND left guard are left blocking no one.
Cichy gets a one-on-one opportunity with a running back, and he’s going to win that matchup all day. Freshman Trojan running back Ronald Jones makes a terrible cut block attempt, and it’s an easy step around for the Wisconsin redshirt sophomore.
Just like that, Cichy had three sacks in a row. No offensive linemen touched him on any of them, and no one touched him on the second one. That left a slow-reacting tight end and running back on the first and third, and it’s no surprise he earned the hat trick.
“The third one probably felt the best and worst,” Cichy said. “By that point, I was out of breath, and everyone swarmed me, so I couldn’t really breathe, but that was obviously the best one.”
Cichy’s record-breaking trio of plays killed the momentum USC had built after scoring a touchdown on their previous drive. He was a force to be reckoned with in this game, and that only bodes well for the future of this front seven.
This defense should be looking forward to Cichy getting back to it again and again in 2016 and beyond.
