West Virginia rebounded from their loss to Oklahoma with a 42-21 win over Cincinnati. They used the power of their running game, which had its most rushing yards under Neal Brown with 424, to propel the way to victory.
But how did the individual players grade out?
This article will take a look at the Pro Football Focus grades from West Virginia’s game against Cincinnati. The list will be split into offense and defense and list the grades from first to worst then discuss the notable highlights from the grades.
Offense
- QB Garrett Greene: 91.3 (65 snaps)
- HB Jahiem White: 89.9: (44 snaps)
- HB CJ Donaldson Jr.: 74.2 (11 snaps)
- WR Rodney Gallagher III: 68.1 (12 snaps)
- TE Kole Taylor: 67.6 (42 snaps)
- QB Nicco Marchiol: 67.3 (3 snaps)
- LT Wyatt Milum: 65.9 (62 snaps)
- WR Traylon Ray: 65.6 (45 snaps)
- HB Justin Johnson Jr.: 65.4 (14 snaps)
- RT Nick Malone: 65.1 (68 snaps)
- LT Johnny Williams IV: 64.4 (6 snaps)
- FB Luke Hamilton: 63.5 (4 snaps)
- LG Tomas Rimac: 62.8 (68 snaps)
- TE Treylan Davis: 62.6 (31 snaps)
- RG Brandon Yates: 61.8 (17 snaps)
- WR Hudson Clement: 60.9 (19 snaps)
- TE Will Dixon: 60.5 (3 snaps)
- WR Devin Carter: 60.5 (40 snaps)
- C Landen Livingston: 60.0 (2 snaps)
- RG Sullivan Weidman: 60.0 (2 snaps)
- WR C.J. Cole: 60.0 (3 snaps)
- RT Doug Nester: 60.0 (1 snap)
- WR Noah Massey: 58.6 (3 snaps)
- C Zach Frazier: 57.5 (66 snaps)
- WR EJ Horton: 56.7 (21 snaps)
- RG Ja’Quay Hubbard: 54.6 (50 snaps)
- WR Preston Fox: 54.1 (46 snaps)
Garrett Greene led the offensive PFF grades with his highest graded performance of the season. He joined Pat White as the only players in program history to pass for 200 yards and rush for 150 yards in the same game.
Jahiem White also had his highest graded performance of the season, having a new career high with 204 rushing yards. He also led the team with an 81.7 grade in the passing game, where he caught a 75-yard touchdown pass.
The team as a whole had its highest graded rushing performance of the season. Garrett Greene and Jahiem White graded out at 88.2 and 87.8 respectively in that facet of the game.
CJ Donaldson was a game-time decision heading into the game and then he set a season low with 11 offensive snaps played.
Rodney Gallagher also had his highest graded game of the season. This is his third time in the last four games in which he has graded above 60.0 after not doing it at all in his first seven games.
Traylon Ray led the team in run blocking grade as a wide receiver at 82.6.
Luke Hamilton saw his first offensive snaps since the TCU game in Week 5.
Brandon Yates was the team’s highest graded pass blocker at 79.4. The team as a whole had its lowest graded pass blocking performance of the season.
Zach Frazier had his lowest graded pass blocking performance of the season at 27.9.
The offense as a whole had its highest graded performance against FBS competition this season.
Defense
- CB Malachi Ruffin: 77.9 (49 snaps)
- S Marcis Floyd: 75.2 (30 snaps)
- FS Aubrey Burks: 74.2 (59 snaps)
- SS Anthony Wilson: 73.7 (58 snaps)
- DL Davoan Hawkins: 68.6 (13 snaps)
- DL Fatorma Mulbah: 67.6 (13 snaps)
- DL Corey McIntyre Jr.: 65.9 (4 snaps)
- LB Lee Kpogba: 65.7 (56 snaps)
- DL Edward Vesterinen: 65.6 (28 snaps)
- DL Sean Martin: 64.8 (31 snaps)
- S Christian Stokes: 64.1 (9 snaps)
- BAN Jared Bartlett: 62.9 (42 snaps)
- DL Tomiwa Durojaiye: 62.7 (16 snaps)
- LB Caden Biser: 60.9 (13 snaps)
- CB Jacolby Spells: 59.7 (14 snaps)
- BAN James Heard Jr.: 59.6 (1 snap)
- SPEAR Raleigh Collins III: 58.1 (8 snaps)
- SPEAR Hershey McLaurin: 58.0 (13 snaps)
- DL Hammond Russell IV: 54.4 (17 snaps)
- CB Beanie Bishop Jr.: 51.6 (55 snaps)
- DL Taurus Simmons: 48.7 (18 snaps)
- DL Mike Lockhart: 47.2 (27 snaps)
- DL Asani Redwood: 46.6 (9 snaps)
- DL Jalen Thornton: 45.1 (18 snaps)
- LB Ben Cutter: 43.2 (48 snaps)
The defense according to the PFF data had 13 pressures, six quarterback hurries, two sacks, 10 missed tackles, three pass breakups, and two penalties.
Malachi Ruffin led the defensive PFF grades for this week with his highest graded performance against FBS competition. He didn’t lead the team in any individual grade but only allowed one catch on four targets while recording one pass breakup.
Marcis Floyd only allowed 3.5 yards per catch while recording one pass breakup.
Aubrey Burks led the team with a 78.0 coverage grade, where he only allowed 1.5 yards per catch.
Anthony Wilson led the team in run defense grade at 77.3. He had seven combined tackles, three defensive stops, and recorded a pass breakup in coverage.
Lee Kpogba led the team with 85.3 and 75.9 tackling and pass rush grades respectively. He finished with team-leading 11 combined tackles and three pressures.
Jared Bartlett had his highest graded game since the TCU game in Week 5. This comes after not grading out above 51.0 in any of his four previous games prior to this week.
Beanie Bishop had his lowest graded game since the Houston game in Week 7. He led the team with 82 yards allowed in coverage, which was his most in a game this season.
Ben Cutter has had back-to-back low graded performances after having a strong two-game stretch before that. He was the lone Mountaineer defender to miss more than one tackle this week with two.
