What's Hot and What’s Knott in Football – Week 5

By Rhys Knott

First things first, no, we’re not going to talk about Cam Ward’s middle finger. Although if he aimed it at Brian Callahan, then we can all agree it’s hot. 

The NFL’s dream of parity is in tatters for another year. While no team is undefeated heading into Week 6, eight teams are yet to win more than a single game! Shoutout to the Jets for refusing to win a single game! You do you, guys, way to stand out from the crowd. 

On the other side of the coin, incompetent blocking by special teams and unreliable kickers are still Knott. 

In Week 5, nothing is hotter than creating the illusion of greatness. The Bills’ defense made Drake Maye and Stef Diggs look like Joe Montana and Jerry Rice.  

The Dolphins’ defense made Rico Dowdle look like Emmitt Smith! 

The Rams’ defense made Mac Jones look like Dan Marino, and two defenses made running backs look like quarterbacks! 

C.J. Stroud looked like Tom Brady against a Ravens defense that wasn’t very good with everyone healthy, is even worse now seven guys are injured. 

Putting up a 153.0 passer rating made Jared Goff look like Drew Brees (but tall), and Sam Darnold’s four touchdowns with an 82% completion rate made him look like Aaron Rodgers (before he started wearing tin foil hats). 

Just two things can come close to incompetent defenders: indiscipline. Arizona, Buffalo, Cleveland, both New York teams, Philadelphia, and Seattle’s offenses all conceded an insurmountable number of penalty yards! 

The second thing? Well, it turns out fumbling the ball is hot, too. 17 different guys tried that in Week 5. 0/10 would not recommend.

What’s Hot in Football – Week 5

First things first, and it’s barely believable that this needs to be said in 2025, the year of our Lord, but offensive play callers finding something that works and sticking with it is so very hot. After five weeks of the season, players and coaches should all know the identity of their team. 

Talent identification is hot, too, but so very rare. Last year, the Falcons asked Kirk Cousins to run the Michael Penix Jr. playbook, and it went as terribly as you’d expect (Kirk lit up the Buccaneers for 509 yards in Week 5, then proceeded to throw 11 picks and get sacked 18 times in his next nine games!). 

Tommy Rees seems to be mirroring that exact situation in Cleveland this year. The Browns have replaced Joe Flacco with Dillon Gabriel and are asking the 5-foot-11 rookie to hang in the pocket and make the same throws the 6-foot-6 Super Bowl winner makes. Gabriel might not be Jayden Daniels, but he’s much better outside the pocket than Flacco.

Former Oregon Duck Gabriel performed well in a losing cause, throwing two touchdowns and no interceptions. He even looked composed in the maelstrom of a collapsing pocket, but he had no choice but to throw a few passes away before his receivers got to the top of their route. All together now, let Dillon cook! 

Back to the good play callers in the league, and John Morton dialled up a Wildcat play that allowed David Montgomery to throw a scoring pass on his return to his hometown.

The pass is hot, but not as hot as this Bengals fan celebrating with Montgomery’s sister in the stands.

Montgomery wasn’t the only running back to throw a touchdown in Week 5. Cam Akers only touched the ball once in London, but he made it count.

Apparently, taking a lead and becoming so conservative with your play calling that you end up surrendering that lead is hot in Week 5, too. 
Both Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay did it on Thursday, and three of the Browns’ final six plays in London were either run plays (that went for -1 yard) or short passes. 

Just when you thought the 49ers’ injury woes couldn’t become any hotter, here we are. The Rams’ turnover problem is even hotter; their six giveaways in five games are a huge red flag. 

Continuing one of Week 4’s tenets, overtime is still hot. Matthew Stafford, Kyren Williams, Puka Nacua and the Rams’ defensive front are still hot, too. But Christian McCaffrey, Fred Warner and Kendrick Bourne are even hotter and dragged the 49ers to a rare Thursday night road win. 

The doink off the upright is hot, just ask Eddy Pieiero. The Flordian is on his sixth team in seven years! He used all his experience to bounce his overtime field goal off the inside of the goal post.

Matthew Stafford threw for 389 passing yards at SoFi in a losing effort. The impressive 37-year-old attempted 47 passes and threw three touchdowns with no interceptions. As impressive as that is on paper, it also highlights one of the 2025 Rams’ issues. 

It’s a minor issue given Sean McVay’s team is 3-2 and seems destined for the playoffs, but they have only run the ball on 42% of their snaps. That means they have only possessed the ball for 37% of the total gametime! 

While they have only been defeated by other playoff teams in the shape of the Eagles and 49ers, the defense is going to be exhausted if they’re asked to do that much heavy lifting for the rest of the season. 

Alfred Collins’s (not to be confused with Batman’s butler) “Peanut punch” at the goalline is hot too. The rookie hasn’t had the impact many expected he would for Robert Saleh’s defense, but that might all be about to change!

Not to be outdone, Browns defensive tackle Maliek “Maliek of the Week” Collins made the most of the sunshine in North London to rack up two sacks.

The Browns had Carson Wentz stone dead at least twice more, but somehow failed to sack him! 

Throwing interceptions might be Knott, but Kool-Aid McKinstry’s second pick is absolutely hot! Most receivers would have dropped this one.

Javonte Williams’ renaissance is very hot, but what passes for tackling in the Jets’ defense is very grim. 

Finally, don’t believe everything you see and read about Spencer Rattler; the only opinion you need is Mina Kimes’. And if that’s not enough for you, check this out.

What's Knott in football - Week 5

Nothing could be more Knott than whatever this is by the Cardinals. Words can’t even describe these shenanigans!

That isn’t even the worst thing that happened in Arizona this week. Emari Demercado (who obviously didn’t see Adonai Mitchell in Week 4) did this. What the actual hell, Emari? 

Getting into the Tottenham Stadium became very Knott in Week 5. Apparently, Daniel Levy took all the stewards with him when he resigned, and they’ve been replaced by teenagers who “have to get my supervisor” Good luck to all the Broncos and Jets fans going next week. 

But back on the ranch, the Raiders, or more accurately, Geno Smith, are Knott. Geno has always been a streaky quarterback. Good Geno has been able to win eight or nine games a season, but the version that plays in silver and black won’t win eight or nine quarters. Week 5 marked the second time this season the veteran QB had thrown multiple picks with zero TDs! 

Six touchdowns, nine interceptions and 16 sacks in five games is worse than Knott! How anyone can claim Ashton Jeanty is a bust when his veteran quarterback is rolling out that level of dreich is beyond comprehension! 

In Geno’s defense he isn’t the only signal caller to throw the ball to defenders on multiple occasions in Week 5. Technically, Cooper Rush beat Geno in the incredibly unimpressive steaks! The Ravens’ backup launched three picks with no touchdowns, but they weren’t all his fault. This is very Knott by Mark Andrews.

Play calling is absolutely Knott in Week 5. Five quarterbacks threw more than 40 passes! Mac Jones attempted 49(!!) He’s the only QB who won a game while his offensive coordinator abandoned the run (maybe Mac is low key brilliant?). 

Kicking is still (and always will be) Knott. While Joshua Karty can point the finger at the blocking when it comes to his missed extra point in SoFi, he failed to square his hips up on his 53-yard field goal attempt. The wild shank-o-potamus had plenty of distance, but it faded off to the right. That’s the second year kicker’s fifth miss of the season! He even missed the landing zone on a kickoff.

Will Reichard missed one at the Tottenham Stadium (after what can only be described as a lacklustre half-time practice session). But at least the Vikings’ kicker had an excuse.

This Browns holding penalty when Quinshon Judkins had the freedom of North London is the most Knott thing you’ll see all year (unless you keep watching Kevin Stefanski’s mob). 

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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