What’s Hot and What’s Knott in Football – Divisional Round

By Rhys Knott

52 points in the first half of a game of football is hot! That’s what the Lions and Commanders served up this week in Detroit. 

Jayden Daniels is so hot he could melt all the snow in Philadelphia! Ben Johnson’s situational football is most definitely Knott. And clock management is a problem across the NFC North, not just in Chicago. 
Matt Stafford in the snow on the other hand, oh boy. He’s now 1-9 in games affected by rain or snow. 

Phantom penalty flags are very Knott; but thankfully, none of the call altered results in any of the games.  

Shoving your own coach must be the most Knott thing that has happened all season. But it’s closely followed by the sliding QB rule and how it impacts the Texans’ linebackers.

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What's Hot in Football – Divisional Round

Saquon, obviously. The hottest running back this side of the Mason-Dixon line now has 534 total yards against the Rams this season. Just between you and me, I don’t think Chris Shula’s megabrain plan of playing two deep safeties against the Eagles works. Might wanna load the box next time chief. 

Barkley is the first man in the history of the National Football League to score four 60+ yard touchdowns against one team, good job the Rams aren’t in the same division as the Eagles! And if we’ve learned one thing about Saquon this season it’s that he’s as great a person as he is a running back.  

Speaking of veterans who turn up in important moments, Travis Kelce has heard you all complaining about how you think he’s old and unfit. He answered the haters in no uncertain terms. In fairness he couldn’t care less what everyone says, he’s been nominated for the Walter Payton Man of the Year award and he’s going to marry a superstar. 

But he’s also still really good at playoff football. The tight end hauled in seven of eight targets for 117 yards. He also caught the epitome of a Mahomesian touchdown pass. Not so old and out of shape any more, eh?  

Last week rookies were hot, this week the Commanders rookies were hot. One in particular took the game away from the Lions. Mike Sainristil’s two interceptions were vital in a game decided by 14 points. 

The Haitian-born 24-year-old undercut a Jameson Wiliams post route in the endzone to snaffle his first pick late in the first half. Then he caught a Jameson Williams pass intended for Jahmyr Gibbs. Precisely why the Lions’ deep threat found himself in the backfield trying to throw a pass is a question Ben Johnson might be getting asked in some upcoming interviews. 

Williams and Gibbs were hot too (when they weren’t involved in that bizarre gadget play). 23-year-old Williams averaged 40 yards per touch but only touched the ball three times (including his pass attempt). Gibbs racked up 175 total yards on 20 touches. Like Williams he really should have had more touches. 

Neither of them matched Amon-Ra St. Brown’s hotness though. The Sun God had 137 receiving yards on eight catches. One reception looked more like an inside run. But since David Montgomery passed the ball forward it’s statistically speaking a reception.

St. Brown also interrupted Jameson Wiliams’ incredibly NSFW celebration. It is a family show after all.

But all of the pales into insignificance compared to Jayden Daniels’ weekend. The 24-year-old became the first rookie quarterback with more than 300 total yards in two playoff games! Daniels followed up accounting for 87% of the Commanders yards in the Wildcard round by contributing just 73% of their total yards!

The underrated MVP candidate didn’t need to perform the same level of heroics as last week because Brian Robinson averaged 5.1 yards per carry this week instead of the 1.6 he averaged against Vita Vea. 

Daniels threw the best pass you’re going to see in a game of football though. Dyami Brown caught it with a blindfold on.

And Terry McLaurin showed why they call him “Scary Terry”. He only caught four passes, but one of them went to the house though!

Sainristil wasn’t the only Commanders defender who caused Jared Goff all sorts of problems at Ford Field. Dorrance Armstrong Jr. Came to the party too. The 27-year-old former Cowboy sacked Goff twice as the Lions’ offensive line missed Kevin Zeitler. 

As we learned last week, a quarterback laying some timber on a defender is very hot. Baker Mayfield did it in the Wildcard round. This week C.J. Stroud took his turn to lower the boom on Jaden Hicks.

Another rookie, the Rams’ defensive end Jared Verse had a massive game too. In total five players, including Verse, recorded multiple sacks this week. George Karlaftis led the way with three, but he refrained from giving the entire stadium the thumbs-down salute like Verse in Philly. Verse ended his game with three tackles for a loss, two sacks and zero friends in Pennsylvania! 

Oh, and snow angels, snow angels on a football field are always hot.

What’s Knott in Football – Divisional Round

Mark Andrews, Mark Andrews is so Knott that he ended the Ravens’ season. After his awful ankle injury in 2023 led to the NFL inventing the “hip drop tackle” rule (remember that?) that is never flagged by refs the tight end seemed to be poised for a big season, especially after Isaiah
Likely’s big toe cost Baltimore the chance to beat the Chiefs in Week 1.  

However, Andrews only caught a football 55 times in the 2024 season. Despite starting four more games than the young upstart Likely the veteran caught just 13 more passes than the former Coastal Carolina Chanticleer. But that’s not why Andrews is Knott this week. 

The tight end caught five of his seven targets, which is fine, but it’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it as those underrated philosophers Bananarama once sang.

Andrews’ fourth quarter fumble resulted in a Bills field goal. Tyler Bass’ kick gave Buffalo a 27-19 lead with 3:29 left on the clock.  

Not content with giving Buffalo a tidy buffer in the last five minutes of the game the Ravens’ most reliable redzone threat then bombed the two-point conversion that would have sent the game to overtime.

On the topic of the Ravens, only running the ball 55% of the time when you’re averaging 5.9 yards per carry. Trying to balance the offense keeps defenses off balance, but this is the playoffs. It’s more important to continue doing whatever the defense can’t stop. Just because you know the Ravens are going to run the ball doesn’t mean you can stop them. 

Derrick Henry has had nine games with 20 or more carries this season. In those games, he’s racked up 1,361 yards at 6.3 yards per carry! 12 of his 16 rushing touchdowns have come when he’s carried more than 20 times in the game too. Against the Bills, in the most important game of the year the Ravens decided to give Henry just 16 carries. 

Talking about play calling that hindered a team, it’s Ben Johnson time. Riding the hot hand is obviously an idea from a bygone era, but us old people are big fans of not fixing something that isn’t broken. Jahmyr Gibbs averaged 8.75 yards per touch against the Commanders’ physical defense, yet he only accounted for 42% of the Lions’ touches on offense. 

While we’re talking about the Lions’ dismal performance, let’s investigate how they completely botched time management at the end of that game. They needed 14 points in the last seven and a half minutes, but still huddled up to call plays and decided to spike the ball with 5:45 on the clock even though they had three unused timeouts. 

Detroit used their first timeout with 4:08 on the clock as the Commanders drove down to the field and eventually missed a field goal. But by the time they got the ball back they had 2:31 left on the clock and no timeouts to use! 

Shoving your own special teams coach is up there with the most Knott thing that’s happened all season. Cornerback Kris Boyd forced a fumble on the opening kickoff in Kansas City, but instead of recovering the fumble he celebrated by removing his helmet and slamming into the ground. When Frank Ross pointed out the error of his ways Boyd decided to shove him. Good luck negotiating a new contract Kris.

Usually, kickers missing kicks would be on the Knott list, but Jake Elliott’s two missed extra points had no impact in Philadelphia. And the seven points Ka’imi Fairbairn missed would have taken the Texans to overtime, but Kansas City hasn’t lost in overtime since Joe Burrow’s heroics in 2022. 

We can talk about the officiating though. Playoff officiating is always wild because the officiating crews are made up of the best officials in their particular role. That means crews are composed of officials who haven’t been working together all season. But that’s no excuse for just being downright wrong.  

Dion Dawkins drew a flag for a hold that involving zero holding, the pass rush slipped on the frozen turf in Orchard Park and fell flat on their face. Dante Fowler Jr. found himself penalised for grabbing David Montgomery’s facemask when he tackled him by the shoulder.

But the Texans’ Will Anderson Jr. Can feel the most aggrieved. The defensive end attracted the officials’ attention for roughing the passer. His real crime is being two inches taller and twenty pounds heavier than the QB. That’s not roughing the passer guys.

The NFL has concocted a mire of confusion around how exactly “replay assist” can assist and it needs to be cleaned up in the offseason. Obviously, nobody wants every officiating decision to be examined with a fine-tooth comb as VAR does during Premier League games, but these incorrect decisions will eventually be decisive. 

RHYS KNOTT

NFL/FANTASY FOOTBALL ANALYST

Rhys has been watching the NFL for 30 something years and still hasn’t managed to pick a team to support. When he’s not fixatED on pass rushers you can find him blithering on about most sports on Twitter @wrhys_writes

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