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UVa's Pro Football Focus grades for Week 11 after the win over Liberty

OL RJ Proctor and WR Joe Reed graded out highest among UVa's players on offense.
OL RJ Proctor and WR Joe Reed graded out highest among UVa's players on offense. (USATI)

When the Wahoos stepped out of ACC play this past weekend, many were hoping to see Virginia get an easy win and stay healthy going into the final two games of the season. For all intents and purposes that's what happened even if there was still plenty to point to as things that need improvement.

The Flames were expected to push UVa's secondary but instead seemed much more apt to try and run the ball. They had some success, at least for a while, and that shows in the Pro Football Focus ratings coming out of the weekend.

Below is a grade card showing how the top 10 offensive and defensive players fared after UVa's win over LU and also a cumulative grade through 11 weeks 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).


UVa Offense

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Offense Grades: Week 11
Player Position Snaps Grade

RJ Proctor

OL

37

72.2

Joe Reed

WR

31

71.0

Jordan Ellis

RB

56

67.6

Lamont Atkins

RB

7

64.9

Bryce Perkins

QB

62

64.4

Olamide Zaccheaus

WR

38

64.2

Gerrik Vollmer

OL

29

63.1

Chris Glaser

OL

35

62.3

Hasise Dubois

WR

41

61.2

Jake Fieler

OL

62

61.0

Takeaways: This was a game where the offense was expected to put up points and also get some subs in the game. While that's clearly what happened, ideally you'd still like the grades to be higher given the caliber of defense they were facing. UVa, which lost center Dillon Reinkensmeyer (concussion) and then later his backup Vollmer (knee), got a nice effort from Proctor at guard. His 77.1 grade in pass pro was second best on the team (Fieler posted an 80.5) and his 71.0 run blocking grade was second to Dubois' 76.6 but easily the highest among the linemen. The health of Reinkensmeyer (he played just 23 snaps) is obviously a focal point for the team but if Fieler is called into long-term duty at center, Proctor and Glaser would appear to fit in as the starting guards. It's interesting to see UVa score 45 points on a day where Perkins had a 46.9 grade in passing but his 80.8 in the run game certainly helped even the scale.


UVa Defense

Juan Thornhill, despite having played sparingly against Pitt, had a big game on Senior Day.
Juan Thornhill, despite having played sparingly against Pitt, had a big game on Senior Day. (VirginiaSports.com)
Defense Grades: Week 11
Player Position Snaps Grade

Juan Thornhill

SS

71

79.0

Tim Harris

CB

71

75.7

Elliott Brown

OLB

5

75.3

Rob Snyder

MLB

60

73.3

Matt Gahm

OLB

29

70.3

Chris Peace

OLB

65

70.2

De'Vante Cross

SS

60

68.8

Eli Hanback

DT

67

68.1

Jordan Mack

MLB

41

64.3

Darrius Bratton

CB

3

62.2

Takeaways: When the Pitt game ended, the idea that Thornhill would play the next week let alone go for all 71 snaps and have the team's highest grade in all four categories would've been unbelievable to most. But that's exactly what happened. Without DE Mandy Alonso and safety Joey Blount, Virginia needed Thornhill even more and he delivered: The senior from Altavista had not only a team-high 85.3 tackling grade but put up a 77.2 in coverage, a 74.5 in run defense, and a 68.8 in pressure which were all team highs. This is the first time this season that a player has had team highs in all four categories. Elsewhere, it was another good day at the office for Harris, who put up an 81.4 in tackling and a 75.3 in coverage, and Snyder, who after missing the Pitt game because of a concussion played all but 11 snaps and had a solid 72.9 in run D. Without Blount available, that the Cavaliers got 60 snaps from Cross—a converted wideout—and that he had an 83.7 (second best on the team) tackling grade is also noteworthy. Lastly, Mack had a rough first game back following his collarbone injury but he was much closer to form here, finishing in the top 10 and putting up an 82.6 tackling grade.


Overall

The Virginia offense finished Week 11 with a cumulative grade of 72.6, which ranks 80th nationally and is the same rating from last week (77th) after the Pitt loss. Each facet of the unit is currently graded as such:

Running—80.7 (up from 78.9)

Passing—72.1 (down from 74.8)

Receiving— 67.7 (up from 67.3)

Run blocking—61.0 (down from 61.9)

Pass blocking— 60.9 (down from 61.2)


The Cavalier defense, meanwhile, finished the Liberty game with a cumulative grade of 91.3, which ranks 43rd nationally, down slightly from 91.4 and 40th respectively. Each facet of that unit is currently graded as such:

Coverage— 93.4 (static from 93.4)

Tackling—85.4 (up from 80.0)

Run defense— 78.7 (up from 77.3)

Pressure—65.9 (down slightly from 66.0)



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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.

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