The Virginia football team opened with a solid, though not smothering, performance Saturday in a 34-17 win against Richmond. The Cavaliers held an edge in most categories on both sides of the ball, but they basically meandered through the second half with a couple of big stops and one scoring drive to put the result in the book.

Essentially, it wasn’t all that unusual of an opener against FCS competition. Some good, some bad, and lots of feedback on what’s needed moving forward. Illinois is up next with a road trip to Champaign on Saturday at 4 p.m.

In terms of the Pro Football Focus (PFF) grades, which aim to measure the level of execution, the average offensive rating checked in at 66.3 and the average defensive rating checked in at 67.4. Both of those generally fall right in the middle of average for the grading scale. The top individual marks regardless of snap counts belonged to Noah Josey (93.7), Perris Jones (83.7), Keytaon Thompson (72.3), Brennan Armstrong (69.5), and Lavel Davis Jr. (69.0) on offense plus Paul Akere (86.3), Fentrell Cypress II (81.3), Jahmeer Carter (77.8), Antonio Clary (74.3), and Josh Ahern (74.2) on defense.

The three lowest grades on offense went to Dontayvion Wicks (52.1), McKale Boley (46.8), and Grant Misch (46.8). Of note, Wicks was hurt in part by the first fumble of his career. The three lowest grades on defense went to Ben Smiley III (55.4), Devontae Davis (53.1), and Jack Camper (45.0).

...