When the schedule was released and showed that UVa would open the 2019 season at Pittsburgh, many Cavalier fans wondered just how the game would play out and how the Hoos would stack up.

Now, coming off a decisive 30-14 win in the Steel City and ready to head back to Charlottesville for their home opener, there’s a lot to like about the way the season is setting up. And in looking at the grades from Pro Football Focus, it’s easy to see why the Wahoos left Heinz Field with a victory in the Coastal Division and also too why there's work to be done.

Below is a grade card showing how the top 10 offensive and defensive players fared in UVa’s win over Pitt and also a cumulative grade through the opening 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: The most obvious takeaway is that Hollins was impressive in his biggest game as a Wahoo. Not only did he score a pair of TDs but he did it on just 14 snaps all while being graded well across the board. He also finished with a 74.6 grade in pass pro, which was fifth highest on the team behind Swoboda (78.8), Jamari Peacock (78.5), Kier (77.5) and Tanner Cowley (75.4). Among the linemen, Derek Divine (two pass pro snaps) had the next-highest grade in pass pro at 73.5 followed by Ben Trent (two snaps) with 73.5, Dillon Reinkensmeyer (26 snaps) at 72.3, Olu Oluwatimi at 70.4 (36 snaps), and Ryan Nelson at 70.3 (40 snaps). In the run game, Swoboda also had the highest grade (68.1) followed by Nelson (63.5), and Tyler Fannin (63.1) on the line. Elsewhere on offense, Chatman had an 86.8 in the passing game followed by Armstrong's 83.9. Bryce Perkins, meanwhile, had by far his worst game as a Wahoo (51.8 overall grade, 42.9 in passing).

Takeaways: After missing the second half in Pittsburgh with a concussion, Mack looked no worse for wear and put up a really nice overall grade fueled in part by his 79 grade in tackling (fifth), 79.5 in run defense (third), and a 75 (first) in pressure. He was one of 14 Cavaliers to grade out in the 70s or higher in tackling, led by Zandier's 82.3, Cross' 82.1, Nelson's 81.1, and Chris Moore's 80.5. Briggs had a really solid night as well, putting up a 79.4 run defense grade across 16 run plays and a 72.4 tackling grade overall. It wasn't a great night for coverage, though, as Cross had the only grade (70.1) that was a 70 or higher. Nick Grant was next with a 66.5 and then Nelson with a 64.9. Bryce Hall finished with a 43.0 in coverage (his lowest as a Hoo) and a 49.2 overall (tied his previous low against Pitt in 2016).

The Virginia offense finished Week 2 with a cumulative grade of 73.8 (up from 66.5), which ranks 40th nationally (up from 82nd). The Wahoos are currently fifth in the ACC on offense. Each facet of the unit is currently graded as such:

Running—85.6 (up from 73.9) No. 6 nationally

Receiving— 70.8 (up from 59.4)

Pass blocking— 68.7 (up from 63.1)

Run blocking—59.5 (down from 64.7)

Passing—59.6 (down from 63.2)

The Cavalier defense, meanwhile, finished the W&M game with a cumulative grade of 77.5 (up from 72.1), which ranks 42nd nationally (up from 64th). UVa currently ranks fourth in the conference. Each facet of that unit is currently graded as such:

Tackling—87.3 (up from 79.9) No. 8 nationally

Run defense— 84.9 (up from 74.2)

Pressure—83.2 (up from 65.0)

Coverage— 68.9 (down from 70.5)

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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.