UVa's PFF grades for Week 4 following Wake loss at home

In the immediate aftermath of Virginia’s 37-17 loss to Wake Forest on Friday night, Bronco Mendenhall’s assessment of his team’s defensive performance was that it had improved from a week prior in Chapel Hill but “not anywhere close to where we need to be.”

The evaluators from PFF College would agree with that instant analysis.

From PFF’s perspective, it was admittedly a low bar to clear. After giving up 699 total yards and 59 points in a loss at North Carolina, the UVa defense earned a 37.9 overall grade, the worst in a game in Mendenhall’s six seasons as coach. The performance dropped UVa’s cumulative defensive grade for the season from 66.2 to 53.2, which ranked 123rd of 130 FBS teams in the country.

Those grades rebounded slightly this week. The defense’s overall score for the Wake loss—in which the Deacons put up 270 yards passing and 203 on the ground—was a 61.1. The defense actually put up its best single-game grades of the season in both tackling (90.4) and run defense (76.5). That tackling grade was the best for a UVa defensive performance since the 2017 season.

But Friday marked fifth time under Mendenhall and the first time since a loss at NC State in 2018 that the UVa defense failed to either record a sack or force a turnover in a game. As a result, Virginia’s scores in both pass rush (61.4) and pass coverage (46.4) were the worst of the season.

For the season, UVa’s cumulative defensive grade (54.9) still ranks 120th nationally. The only defensive category the Hoos have a score that ranks among the top 100 teams in the country is tackling (69.0, which ranks 46th). They’re at the bottom of the ACC in both pass rush (63.9) and overall defense.

Below is a grade card showing how the top 10 offensive and defensive players fared in the loss to the Deacs and also a cumulative grade through the third 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: Despite his fourth straight 300-yard game and third straight with 400-plus—both school records—Brennan Armstrong’s 81.3 overall grade was his lowest in four games this season. Armstrong has still received the best score on the UVa offense in each of those four games. His 93.2 cumulative grade for the season ranks third nationally among quarterbacks. … Jelani Woods’ 79.0 cumulative grade ranks second in the ACC and 21st nationally among tight ends. … First-year receiver Malachi Fields has seen both his snap count increase and his overall grade improve each week. His three catches and four targets against Wake were both career highs. … Mike Hollins’ rushing grade (76.2) was the best for a UVa running back this season. … Center Olu Oluwatimi (82.1) and left tackle Ryan Nelson (80.6) both graded out above 80 in pass protection. … Oluwatimi (62.3) graded as the Hoos’ best O-lineman in run blocking. No other lineman broke 60. … Playing with a fractured left hand suffered in the UNC loss, Keytaon Thompson earned his second consecutive sub-65 overall grade.

Takeaways: Virginia had six players earn better individual grades than the team-best 64.7 by Fentrell Cypress in the loss at UNC. … That 82.0 for cornerback Anthony Johnson was the best single-game grade for a UVa defensive player this season. It was Johnson’s best score since he earned an 84.1 against the Hoos in 2019 while playing for Louisville. Johnson was UVa’s best player in both run defense (86.9) and coverage (77.5), while his 84.4 tackling grade was second on the team behind safety Joey Blount (86.1). … Nick Jackson’s 77.5 was his best grade of the season, and the best for a UVa linebacker since Hunter Stewart’s 79.1 in the opener against William & Mary. … In his first game appearance of the season, nose tackle Jordan Redmond graded as UVa’s best defensive lineman against Wake. … Nick Grant earned his best overall grade as well as both in coverage (65.3) and as a tackler (48.6) since moving to safety this season. … Outside linebacker Noah Taylor’s 50.7 grade as a pass rusher was a career low. … A week after earning the highest grade on the defense, Cypress (39.3) earned the unit’s lowest score on Friday night. … Safety De’Vante Cross was the lone defensive player to play all 79 snaps against Wake.

With an 84.3 overall grade on offense for the season, Virginia has fallen out of the top 10 nationally. That cumulative score ranks 14th in the country and third in the ACC this week. A week ago, the Wahoos were eighth in the country and second in the league with an 86.5 overall grade. Each facet of the unit is currently graded as such:

Passing —92.5 (second in the country, last week 92.7)

Running—76.3 (last week 76.0)

Pass blocking—71.4 (last week 69.7)

Receiving—74.3 (last week 78.6)

Run blocking—66.0 (last week 66.6)

The defense remains at the bottom of the ACC with a 54.9 overall grade, which is up slightly from 53.2 a week ago. That defensive grade is tied with Colorado for 120th among 130 FBS teams nationally. Each facet of that unit is currently graded as such:

Coverage—58.2 (last week 66.3)

Tackling—69.0 (last week 52.7)

Pressure—63.9 (last week 63.9)

Run defense—52.2 (last week 39.3)

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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.