Greg’s Grades & Trends: Central Michigan

The Virginia football team got good grades on offense.
Olamide Zaccheaus scored 2 touchdowns in the UVA victory. ~ Kris Wright

The Virginia football team’s rebuilding effort continues and Saturday finally brought fans, players, and coaches some much-needed tangible results in the win-loss sector. The Hoos recorded a 49-35 victory over previously undefeated Central Michigan and while not delivering a complete, four-quarter, all phase effort, it was a quality performance against a quality opponent. The grades reflect that fact.

As I look at the numbers, UVA’s offense posted its best performance of the season and set numerous personal and team records. Based on coach Bronco Mendenhall’s pedigree from his time at BYU, I think this is what fans were expecting to see. For the first time this season, the special teams operation had four units grade out with B marks or higher and overall the operation had a meaningful part in the game’s outcome.

The defense came off with an average performance but the grades, while accurately reflecting the overall performance, do not reflect how the defense stepped up at critical times in the game to keep Virginia on track for a win. That included forcing three-and-outs in four of CMU’s opening five drives to stake the Hoos to a big lead and shutting down the CMU offense for three straight drives after the Chippewas tied the contest late in the third quarter. On the final stop of the three, with Central Michigan in Virginia territory, Kelvin Rainey forced a 5-yard loss to put CMU in a 3rd-and-11 which it did not convert.

The Hoos took the lead on in the ensuing drive on Olamide Zaccheaus’ 82-yard TD reception and never looked back. With that, let’s take a look at the numbers and trends.

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