The Wahoos bounced back from a frustrating loss in Louisville with a decisive win in Chapel Hill this past weekend and one that was fueled in larger part by their offense. UVa’s 38-31 victory keeps the Cavaliers in a prime spot, leading the Coastal Division with just three regular-season games remaining, including two ACC contests, with all three being at home.

The offensive explosion was evident away from the scoreboard as well. The PFF College grades following the win in the South’s Oldest Rivalry show a group that executed at a much higher clip.

Below is a grade card showing how the top 10 offensive and defensive players fared in win to the Heels and also a cumulative grade through the 10th week of the season for the offense and defense with comparisons to national ranking. (For more on how PFF grades, there’s an explanation at the bottom of this story).

Takeaways: It’s not a surprise at all, given his production on the field, to see Jana at the top of this list. He had a 79.5 in the passing game, second only to Perkins’ 80.3. They were part of a group with Misch that all graded out north of 70 in that category. Perkins’ 77.5 overall was a season high for him. Oluwatimi put up an 80.4 in pass pro, which is the second-highest grade by O-linemen in that category this season (Bobby Haskins had an 81.3 against Duke). Bissinger had a 76.2 on his 10 snaps, just hitting our threshold, followed by Reinkensmeyer’s 76. Misch also had the highest grade in run blocking at 71.2 with Reinkensmeyer (61.2) and Bissinger (60.3) leading the way among the linemen.

Takeaways: Alonso was one of four to grade out in the 70s overall, joined by Burney, Snowden, and Mack. That was in part because not only did Alonso play the run well, grading out at 79.1, but so too did the other three as that group all graded above a 70. In terms of tackling, Moore had another really solid effort. He had a team-high 81.2 followed by Taylor’s 80.0 in tackling. Others to go north of 70 in that category included Mack, Grant, Briggs, Faumui, Alonso, Hanback, Burney, and Snowden with Nick Jackson just missing that cut. Pressure and coverage, though, were a different story. Joey Blount had a rough night but did have a team-high 69.1 in pressure, the only grade above 65. And in coverage, Zane Zandier led the way with a 66.3. His and Moore’s 65.0 were the only two grades above that line.

The Virginia offense finished Week 10 with a cumulative grade of 69.6 (up from 67.6), which ranks 82nd nationally (up from 95th last week). The Wahoos are currently seventh in the ACC on offense (ninth last week). Each facet of the unit is currently graded as such:

Receiving— 76.2 (up from 73.8)

Running—73.8 (down from 74.9)

Run blocking—61.2 (down from 61.6)

Pass blocking—56.1 (up from 55.1)

Passing—55.6 (up from 50.6)

The Cavalier defense, meanwhile, finished the UNC game with a cumulative grade of 84.3 (down from 86.8), which ranks 48th nationally (43rd last week). UVa currently ranks sixth in the conference (same as last week). Each facet of that unit is currently graded as such:

Run defense— 80.6 (down from 81.5)

Pressure—76.0 (down from 77.5)

Tackling—73.8 (down from 80.7)

Coverage— 77.3 (same as last week)

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An explanation from PFF on how the grading scale works:

On every play, a PFF analyst will grade each player on a scale of -2 to +2 according to what he did on the play.

At one end of the scale you have a catastrophic game-ending interception or pick-six from a quarterback, and at the other a perfect deep bomb into a tight window in a critical game situation, with the middle of that scale being 0-graded, or ‘expected’ plays that are neither positive nor negative.

Each game is also graded by a second PFF analyst independent of the first, and those grades are compared by a third, Senior Analyst, who rules on any differences between the two. These grades are verified by the Pro Coach Network, a group of former and current NFL coaches with over 700 combined years of NFL coaching experience, to get them as accurate as they can be.

From there, the grades are normalized to better account for game situation; this ranges from where a player lined up to the dropback depth of the quarterback or the length of time he had the ball in his hand and everything in between. They are finally converted to a 0-100 scale and appear in our Player Grades Tool.

Season-level grades aren’t simply an average of every game-grade a player compiles over a season, but rather factor in the duration at which a player performed at that level. Achieving a grade of 90.0 in a game once is impressive, doing it (12) times in a row is more impressive.

It is entirely possible that a player will have a season grade higher than any individual single-game grade he achieved, because playing well for an extended period of time is harder to do than for a short period, Similarly, playing badly for a long time is a greater problem than playing badly once, so the grade can also be compounded negatively.

Each week, grades are subject to change while we run through our extensive review process including All-22 tape runs and coaching audit, so you may notice discrepancies among grades published in earlier articles compared with those in the Player Grades tool until grade lock each week.