From the first play from scrimmage last Saturday against Illinois, the Virginia offense was moving downfield in big chunks.

Quarterback Brennan Armstrong and tight end Jelani Woods connected for a 31-yard gain to start that opening drive. They hooked up again three plays later for a 32-yard touchdown pass.

It was the same story on UVa’s next possession, just with different receivers involved. A 39-yard pass from Armstrong to Ra’Shaun Henry. A 28-yard touchdown throw to Dontayvion Wicks. Less than five minutes in, the Hoos had a two-score lead that would eventually grow into a 42-14 victory.

Virginia ran eight plays on those first two drives. Six went for at least 10 yards. Four went for at least 20, all on passing plays; three for 30-plus. After scuffling early offensively in the opener against William & Mary, UVa offensive coordinator Robert Anae hopes fast starts become the trend for his group moving forward.

“You want to put your guys in the right spots and then you’d like them to respond. Two things go on in that regard,” Anae said after Tuesday morning’s practice. “Shoot, our guys were there and they responded well.”

The Wahoos finished the game with nine passing plays of 20-plus yards. Through two games, they have six plays of 30-plus yards, with five coming through the air. That big-play ability is a big reason why through the season’s first two weeks, UVa’s pass offense ranks second in the country with a 93.0 grade from PFF College.

Below is a grade card showing how the top 10 offensive and defensive players fared in win over the Illini and also a cumulative grade through the second week of the season for the offense and defense with comparisons to national ranking. (For more on how Pro Football Focus grades, we post an explanation at the bottom of this story).

Takeaways: PFF named Armstrong its offensive player of the week for his 405-yard, five-TD performance against Illinois. That 94.7 grade is his best in 11 career starts, and the fourth time in his last five games going back to last season that he’s graded 90 or better. Through two games, Armstrong’s 94.9 cumulative PFF grade is best among Power 5 QBs…Woods ranked as UVa’s worst offensive player against W&M with a 40.1 grade. This week, he graded out behind only Armstrong on the offense. His 92.2 was the best receiving grade on the offense…The ACC’s offensive lineman of the week, Oluatimi’s 88.2 overall grade is the best for a UVa O-lineman early this season. He graded as the Hoos’ best run blocker (88.6) and third in pass protection (83.4). Joe Bissinger (89.9) and Bobby Haskins (87.2) graded as UVa’s top pass blockers…Thompson (83.4) got the Wahoos’ best rushing grade for the second time in as many weeks.

Takeaways: A week after grading out as UVa’s worst defensive player (43.9) against William & Mary, Cross (74.3) edged out Taylor for the top defensive grade in Week 2…Jackson also saw his weekly grade improve from 52.2 to 66.9, buoyed by his team-best grade in coverage (77.1) and a tackling grade (82.4) that was second on the defense…Clary’s 83.9 tackling grade against Illinois is best on the UVa defense through the season’s first two games…UVa’s top four players in run defense were all D-backs - Nick Grant (84.5), Clary (76.6), Blount (75.0), and Cross (65.9)….After his career two-sack day, Taylor (70.0) graded out as the Wahoos’ top pass rusher.

Through two weeks, the Virginia offense has a cumulative grade of 89.7, which ranks fourth nationally (up from 18th when it was 81.5 last week). The Wahoos are currently second (same as last week) in the ACC on offense. Each facet of the unit is currently graded as such:

Passing—93.0 (second nationally, up from 90.6)

Running— 82.1 (up from 81.5)

Pass blocking—80.3 (up from 76.9)

Receiving—75.8 (up from 68.7)

Run blocking—70.6 (up from 69.1)

The Wahoo defense, meanwhile, came out of the Illinois game with a cumulative season grade of 66.2, which is tied for 91st nationally (down from 67.9 and 73rd). UVa currently ranks 12th (ninth last week) in the conference. Each facet of that unit is currently graded as such:

Coverage— 72.9 (up from 63.6)

Tackling— 72.0 (down from 74.6)

Pressure— 63.6 (up from 63.0)

Run defense—56.2 (down from 69.5)

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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.