UVa's PFF grades for Week 13 after the win over the Flames

The Wahoos came out of their bye week and once again handled their business, this time against a Liberty team most expected would have a lot of success through the air.

The consistency offensively continued in the win, with the offensive linemen being among the PFF College picks for the best among ACC players while one defender made the group’s national team for the week.

Below is a grade card showing how the top 10 offensive and defensive players fared in win over the Flames and also a cumulative grade through the 13th 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: For the first time all season, multiple offensive linemen led this way this week, with six making the top eight and all coming in at north of a 70.0 grade. That in of itself, given the struggles the line has had this year, is extremely noteworthy as well as the fact that three linemen (Haskins, Reinkensmeyer, and Glaser) made PFF's team of the week in the ACC. Haskins and Reinkensmeyer, specifically, have had some really tough moments so to see them at the top of this list with an 80.0 and a 76.7 is impressive regardless of the opponent. Swoboda was right behind them, another great sign as he continues to come back from a lower leg injury. Glaser had the highest pass pro grade of the week with an 84.0 followed closely by Bissinger with an 82.2. And in run blocking, Haskins put up an 89.0, by far the highest grade among the O-line in that category this year while Reinkensmeyer had the second-highest grade in that facet with an 81.6. Elsewhere on offense, it was another nice game from Jana and a really solid coming out party of sorts for Wicks. Jana had the third-highest run blocking grade at 74.9 while Wicks had the fourth-highest passing game grade with a 70.7.

Takeaways: What a game Faumui had against the Flames. His overall grade was by far the highest for any player all season long, which shouldn’t surprise us given that he made PFF’s national team of the week. His 87.1 in pressure on 41 of his 54 snaps, coupled with his 71.5 grade against the run, helped make that happen. That Jackson, largely in relief of Mack, was able to grade out so well also is a very good sign for the D, both now and for the future. He had a team-high 72.8 against the run this week while his 76.8 grade in pressure was fourth-best on the team. Though Heskin Smith had a bit of an up and down game overall, he had a team-high 83.9 tackling grade, just ahead of Blount’s 82.0. In all, nine Cavaliers graded out at 70.0 or higher in that category. Lastly (and unsurprisingly) Cross had a team-high grade in coverage at 73.3, with Gahm finishing right behind at 72.2.

The Virginia offense finished Week 13 with a cumulative grade of 74.0 (up from 71.2), which ranks 70th nationally (up from 79th last time). The Wahoos are currently sixth in the ACC on offense (same as before the bye week). Each facet of the unit is currently graded as such:

Receiving— 78.2 (up from 77.4)

Running—75.3 (up from 73.6)

Run blocking—69.6 (up from 64.4)

Pass blocking—61.5 (up from 59.2)

Passing—57.0 (up from 55.3)

The Cavalier defense, meanwhile, finished the Liberty game with a cumulative grade of 86.2 (up from 83.8), which ranks 46th nationally (50th last time). UVa currently ranks sixth in the conference (same as last week). Each facet of that unit is currently graded as such:

Run defense— 81.9 (up from 81.6)

Pressure—81.2 (up from 77.2)

Tackling—75.1 (same as before the bye)

Coverage— 75.7 (up from 72.3)

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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.