PFF Grades: Looking at how UVa fared in the loss at Illinois

This season, CavsCorner is once again using the grades from PFF College to look at how the Wahoos fared. This week, we break down the Week 2 loss to the Illini.

Overall: 61.2

Offense: 47.1

Defense: 77.5

1. UVa’s offense was a disaster, and it started in the trenches.

Virginia’s three-point effort over the weekend, as expected, resulted in some very low PFF grades across the board. Nowhere was the rough play more evident than the offensive line, where the Wahoos posted their worst pass-blocking grade (34.5) since a 33.5 in the 2019 win over Florida State.

On Saturday, UVa allowed a staggering 26 pressures with the quarterback getting hurried on 20 of them, with five sacks. A brutal blocking performance led to a rough passing game that didn’t break 200 yards or find the end zone while accounting for a pair of turnovers.

It was certainly a team effort on Saturday when it came to the blocking woes and UVa needs better efforts from all of their starters up front. Ty Furnish did a great job in fall camp separating himself and winning the starting center job, but he had a rough outing against Illinois, allowing seven pressures on the day and finishing with a blocking grade of 19.2. Jonathan Leech had a tough game in his first contest back from injury, allowing six pressures and a sack. Tackles Logan Taylor and McKale Boley graded out below 50 as well. Jestus Johnson got 10 snaps and graded out a little bit better at 64.4, but it’s difficult to put too much stock in such a small sample size of plays.

On top of all of the pressure allowed, UVa’s offensive line accounted for five penalties on the day. Overall it was simply a performance that can’t become the norm or things are going to get a whole lot worse for the Hoos.

2. The pass defense was solid once again.

On the plus side, the secondary again graded out well. UVa’s coverage grade was the highest for any grade given for the second straight week. The Cavaliers earned an 86.2, allowing 195 passing yards and 11.5 yards per reception on the day. The DBs also didn’t account for a single penalty in coverage, which is relatively rare for a single game given the number of pass interference and defensive holding calls in the average contest.

UVa’s pass coverage group allowed 17 receptions on 25 total targets with a long of 43 yards. And for the second week in a row, UVa didn’t give up too many big plays in the passing game. The average target for the Illini was below 10 yards, with only two players, Jonas Sanker and Antonio Clary, defending plays longer than 10 yards on average. UVa also finished the contest with a pair of PBU’s, and an interception from Anthony Johnson on the second play of the game.

Virginia’s ability to defend big plays has been promising to date but the secondary still has a lot to prove despite two well-graded performances. UVa has played an FCS opponent and an Illinois team far more comfortable keeping the ball on the ground than throwing it downfield. Games further down the schedule will tell us if the secondary is taking advantage of beatable passing games, or if they truly are doing a far better job preventing big plays.

3. It was a rough day for Brennan Armstrong.

It was difficult to envision this UVa offense having such a rough time of it in a game like this, until it happened on Saturday. Armstrong completed just 13 of his 32 pass attempts, throwing for just 180 yards and a pair of interceptions. He finished the game with a 46.7 passing grade, the second-lowest mark of his career in a start (Miami 2021). As we’ve already discussed, Armstrong didn’t get a lot of help from his blocking. His receivers weren’t exactly getting it done, either, as they had a pair of drops in Saturday’s loss after having three in the opener.

Armstrong’s average time to throw was 2.79 seconds, down from 2.86 seconds against Richmond. That 2.79 number isn’t all that bad really, so while there was plenty of pressure, an offense that featured more quick throws (as last year’s did) may have had a lot more success. For example, UVa had four games last season with 2.63 seconds to throw or less, and Armstrong threw for 12 touchdowns and had 400 yards or more in three of those four games. In the loss to Illinois, he had 16 throws with clean pockets, completing eight of those passes for 138 yards. And on plays with pressure, Armstrong was just 5-for-16 for 42 yards and a pair of picks. Illinois blitzed on 16 plays and recorded both interceptions when bringing extra players.

Virginia’s passing game seemed to be a bit too reliant on throws deep down the field as well. Some 34.4 percent of Armstrong’s pass attempts were 20+ yards down the field, and he completed just one of those for 62 yards. The other 10 hit the turf or were intercepted. Armstrong was 7-for-11 on throws up to 9 yards but they only went for 39 yards, or 3.5 per attempt.

Clearly, there is plenty to clear up here, from blocking, to play calling to passing and catching execution.

Jonas Sanker (75.8): For the second-straight week, Sanker looked like a breakout candidate on defense. The Charlottesville native finished with the highest grade on the team, 75.8, playing 71 total snaps. He created seven tackles, a pair of forced fumbles and a very solid 76.2 coverage grade.

Kam Butler (75.2): After a bit of a quiet game against Richmond, Butler showed a bit of his potential against Illinois. He had the defense’s second-highest overall grade at 75.2. Butler played 53 snaps, with 25 pass rush attempts, including his first sack as a Cavalier and three total tackles. Butler also forced a fumble and even dropped into coverage on another play.

Antonio Clary (75.0): Finally, Clary was the next-highest grade on the team at 75 with the highest coverage grade at 80. He missed one tackle but finished the game with six, and did a really nice job in coverage, including recording a pass break-up.