UVa's PFF grades for Week 15 after the ACCCG loss to Clemson

The Wahoos didn’t leave Charlotte with the ACC title this past weekend but they showed some good things despite a 62-17 loss to Clemson. The offense moved the ball well and racked up more yardage than any team had against the Tigers this season. The contrast on the scoreboard, though, was also seen in the PFF College data.

Below is a grade card showing how the top 10 offensive and defensive players fared in loss to Clemson and also a cumulative grade through the 15th 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: It’s no surprise that Dubois leads the way seeing as how he had easily the best game of any Cavalier on the field at Bank of America Stadium. The fact that he was one of just four Wahoos with an overall grade north of 65 says a lot about the opponent and the overall gap between the two programs. Dubois had the top grade in the passing game (67.9) just ahead of Jana (66.2). Still, it’s been a trend of late that UVa’s offensive linemen have executed at a higher level and been among the team's best, which was again the case on Saturday night. Three of the top five and half of the top 10 were along the offensive front even if the scores were low. Nelson finished with an 85.8 in pass pro across 59 snaps, an incredibly strong number given the situation and opponent. Cowley was next at 79.9 followed by Ryan Swoboda at 78.1 (though he only played 10 snaps) then Glaser at 74.8, Haskins at 72.0, and Oluwatimi at 71.5. Cowley had the honors of putting up the highest run blocking grade (76.9) and was the lone player to grade out north of 70.

Takeaways: There’s no easy way to get around just how tough a night it was for the Hoos when it came to slowing Clemson down. It’s not often that the scoreboard and the grades are this in step with each other but that was absolutely the case this weekend. Not only did the Cavaliers not have a player grade out higher than 65 overall—a first for the season—but they also had just five players grade out north of 65 in tackling with the vast majority coming in well below 50 in that category. Though he didn't have the highest overall grade, Jackson had the most all-around game. He had a team-high 74.4 in run defense while Grant was right behind at 73.3, the only two to grade higher than 70. Jackson also had the highest tackling grade on the evening with an 82.4, as he was one of four (along with Snowden, Burney, and Hanback) to go over 70. Moore, in his first game back following a suspension, had a 70.8 in pressure while Cross had a 70.2. Lastly, Jackson had a 64.9 in coverage, which was also a team high. Unfortunately, though, he was only one of four players (along with Jordan Mack, Snowden, and Mandy Alonso) to finish above 60.0.

The Virginia offense finished Championship Week with a cumulative grade of 73.7 (down from 74.5), which ranks 69th nationally (down from 67th last time). The Wahoos are sixth in the ACC on offense (same as last week). Each facet of the unit is currently graded as such:

Receiving— 77.4 (down from 78.5)

Running—73.9 (down from 75.6)

Run blocking—69.9 (down from 70.2)

Pass blocking—63.2 (up from 60.7)

Passing—57.6 (down from 58.4)

The Cavalier defense, meanwhile, came out of the extra week with a cumulative grade of 79.5 (down from 83.8), which ranks 67th nationally (53rd last week). UVa currently ranks ninth in the conference (sixth last week). Each facet of that unit is currently graded as such:

Pressure—82.5 (down from 83.1)

Run defense— 76.4 (down from 79.4)

Tackling—69.1 (down from 77.4)

Coverage— 68.0 (down from 73.1)

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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.