What’s Hot and What’s Knott in Football – Week 11

By Rhys Knott

Missing is hot in Week 11. Kickers missing the posts when kicking the football and officials missing facemask penalties is becoming hotter than replacing creativity with AI in 2024. Across the National Football League kickers combined to miss nine field goals and four extra points!

And the only thing hotter than missing blatant facemask penalties is complaining about those missed calls on social media.

According to the internet, the innumerable missed calls happened on purpose. But the Chiefs’ visit to Orchard Park became a hotbed of missed calls. Even though the Bills won Bills Mafia is convinced they were screwed over by the officials. Just a normal Sunday on X then.

Quarterbacks using their legs is becoming increasingly hot too. And rookie signal callers might be back (especially if you count Anthony Richardson who has only started 11 games).

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What’s Hot in Football – Week 11

Saquon Barkley, in the simplest of terms when he is healthy he is hot. This season he looks healthier than he has for some time. The 27-year-old would be in the MVP conversation if it isn’t the domain of quarterbacks. He may not have defied the laws of physics this week, but he made football look easy as he dominate a lacklustre Thursday Night Football game.

Barkley’s 198 yards from scrimmage is his most since Week 9’s 199 yards! Suffice to say he’s in great form. The Bronx native has dragged his team to the top of the NFC East rankings. He looks set to drag them all the way to the playoffs.

SaQuads, as his friends call him (I know, I don’t believe it either) recorded four of the seven fastest carries on Thursday! Nobody else crossed the 20 mph barrier. The former Giant clocked 20.78 mph and 20.64 mph when he carried the football! But neither of those are close to the 21.93 he hit back in Week 7! And he made a new friend too.

On a similar topic, the Eagles themselves  are hot property. The fans might like to grumble about (or scream at) Nick Sirianni but his team have won six football games on the bounce.

Philadelphia’s offense might not be the prettiest, but it’s powerful. Plus their defense is ranked in the top 5 when it comes to both passing yards and running yards conceded. If defense really does win championships Philly is headed to the NFC Championship game.

On the other sideline on Thursday, despite what he said, Jayden Daniels looked to be bothered by his rib injury (I winced every time he was tackled)!

One positive for the Commanders came in the shape of 28-year-old Frankie Luvu. The linebacker tried his level best to lift Dan Quinn’s spirits. Luvu made 10 total tackles with two tackles for a loss and both of the Commanders’ sacks!

Only Taysom Hill came within cooeey of Saquon Barkley in Week 11. Hill sort of began the running quarterback craze this week. The tight end/ quarterback lined up all over the place though and completely bamboozled the Browns’ defense. Jim Schwartz’s guys became so confused they forgot to tackle Hill when he carried the football. As a result the 34-year-old proceeded to absolutely ruin them.

No other running back (or quarterback) went over 100 yards on the ground in Week 11.

But Jared Goff did Jared Goff things again, albeit against an abject Jaguars defense. Goff threw the football for 412 yards and four touchdowns. He threw more incompletions than touchdowns for a change though. But he completed 24 of 29 attempts. That ladies and gentlemen is how you finish the game with a perfect passer rating. 

Bo Nix might not have recorded a perfect passer rating. But he is just the second rookie quarterback after Peyton Manning (he had a decent career, didn’t he?) to do this

With Shane Waldron unceremoniously dumped by the Bears (better late than never eh?) Caleb Williams actually looked comfortable. At least as comfortable as anyone could look behind that turnstile of an offensive line they keep rolling out in the Windy City.

Williams ranked 12th in Week 11 with his 70 rushing yards and he completed 74% of his passes to boot. Da Bears might find new ways to lose each week, but they appear to have a quarterback for once.

Drake Maye averaged 9 yards a carry, but we don’t talk about the Patriots, remember? The amount of Copium being consumed in New England would fell a rhino.  

Justin Herbert averaged 13 yards per carry against an atrocious Bengals defense.

Truth be told he should have run more often, the Chargers definitely should have run more often in the second half, but they became drawn into some sort of frantic track meet. Herbert only completed 17 of 36 passes, but the Bengals incompetence got the Chargers over the line. More about that later. 

Jalen Hurts scored a rushing touchdown, but Tush Pushes don’t really involve running, so it doesn’t really count. Brock Purdy’s rushing TD however definitely counts, it’s a doozy. 

And Anthony Richardson is back (probably). The Colts still look like they need to adapt their offense to suit the players they have, but they won on the road in MetLife. Indianapolis face a tough game against the Lions next week, but they have four very winnable games that should see them record nine wins in 2024.  

In the least surprising news of the week, Josh Allen won a game with his legs. 

But in the most surprising news of the week, 34-year-old Geno Smith also ran in the winning touchdown.

The good version of Christian Watson turned up at Soldier Field. The Arizona native racked up a career-best 150 yards on just four catches! Amon-Ra St. Brown notched up more receiving yards, but he caught 11 passes, Watson would have been close to 412 yards if hauled in 11! 

But, even more important than all of that are Week 11’s defensive stars. Tuli Tuipulotu made the Bengals’ offensive line look like schoolchildren as he racked up some silly numbers. 

Nine other players, apart from Luvu and Tuipulotu recorded more than one sack in Week 11. Odafe Oweh of the Ravens led the way with 2.5 of his own in what can only be described as a scrap with the Steelers. 

What’s Knott in Football – Week 11

Jake Elliott, if there’s one thing that could snuff out the Eagles’ title challenge it’s a kicker who can’t hit field goals from 50 yards. Elliott’s woes appear to be more of a blip than a trend. He’s a 70% kicker from 50 yards or more over the course of his career and he has only attempted three from that range this year. But a guy who has kicked 61-yard field goals and won a Super Bowl shouldn’t be struggling in November. 

Not to be outdone two other previously elite kickers have become distinctly ordinary in 2024. Justin Tucker and Evan McPherson both missed back-to-back field goal attempts to the left.

Tucker has now missed five field goal attempts this season, he has never missed more than seven in a single season throughout his 12-and-a-half-season career!  

It’s somehow even worse for McPherson, the Bengals have now lost four games by one score when he has missed crucial kicks! If they had won those games Cincinnati would now have an 8-3 record with two decisive games against the Steelers in the final six weeks of the season. 

Away from the kicking woes, there’s a surprising entry in the Knot list in Week 11, one Patrick Mahomes. The normally diligent Chief suffered the indignity of being the only quarterback to throw more than one interception this week.

Elsewhere poor old Will Levis became a tackle bag as he suffered five sacks! The Titans continue to demonstrate why they never should have let Mike Vrabel leave. It doesn’t get more Knott than replacing a successful head coach with one who is on pace to win just four games this year! 

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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