What’s Hot and What’s Knott in Football – Week 7

By Rhys Knott

Week 7 served up some of the most turgid football anyone can ever remember seeing, and some diabolical officiating.
 
Run defense is hot in Week 7. Thursday night’s game served up 599 yards of offense through the air, and just 186 yards on the ground.
 
Elsewhere, we saw nuns and the sainted Tom Brady losing his mind over what constitutes roughing the passer these days.
 
But, nothing is more Knott than people who aren’t very clever thinking that they are very clever, as demonstrated by Dennis Allen.
 
And there’s a tale of two Treys.
 

What’s Hot in Football – Week 7

Let’s get the main headline out of the way first, shall we? Nobody and nothing in 2026 is as hot as JJ McCarthy and Kyler Murray. Go figure.
Trey McBride is pretty darn hot too.
And for a second consecutive week, Geno Smith is hot. Didn’t stop the Jets losing to the Dolphins, though.
In slightly more normal news, Christian McCaffrey is hot.
The 49ers’ stud equalled a record held by the legendary Marshall Faulk, who revealed his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease this week. That’s simply awful news, and everyone at The Touchdown wishes him well going forward.
CMC isn’t the only hot running back in Week 7, though; Bijan Robinson is off to his own record-equalling start to the 2026 season too.
The Bills mascot chilling in their Bye week is hot too.
Even if Ben Johnson insists he’s as bothered as Vicky Pollard, the Bears’ time of possession is hot. It’s not always a great indication of success, but it’s an indication of how well they have run the ball in 2026.
On the topic of the Bears, backflips are hot.
Smart offensive line play is also hot.
Caleb Williams ripping Richard Sherman to his face is pretty hot. Sherman might have been a great defensive player in the league, but most of his hot takes are completely indefensible.
On the field, Luther Burden III is hot in Week 7 and in primetime! 130 yards is a lot, but when you only catch four passes, it’s a ridiculous amount of yards!
The Patriots’ defense is both hot and Knott this week. They’re exceptionally hot when it comes to stopping the run.
For one week only, the Buccaneers are somehow hot, very, very hot.
Nuns are hot, right? Not like that, you perverts! Jared Goff’s former teachers certainly blessed the Lions in Week 7.
Technically, sending an official flying is Knott, but the flag throw whilst lying on the turf is very hot! It shouldn’t have actually been a penalty, though; Amon-Ra hadn’t actually been tackled, his knees were on top of the defender and not the ground.
Micah Parsons’ energy for the officiating in the Packers @ Lions game is hot too. Furiously hot.
That Lions rivalry fit is hot too. But it’d be even hotter with a silver lion on the helmet.

Drake London had a few choice words for the officials this week (didn’t we all?), but he checked on the lady who Malik Mustapha landed on. He’s a big softie and this is so hot.

Demetrius Knight Jr. leads the Week 7 hilarious interception club, mainly because it’s the only one. Barrett Carter definitely should have hauled it in, but he somehow looped it up to his fellow linebacker.

What’s Knott in Football – Week 7

Capitalism is totally Knott. The NFL fining players for wearing the wrong footwear has been going on since Brandon Marshall was fined for wearing lime green cleats that promoted mental health awareness (because the NFL weren’t making any money by him wearing them). That whole kerfuffle led to the “My Cause My Cleats” initiative.
 
Caleb Williams isn’t even promoting anything with his illegal cleats; he’s just trying to save his body from any more damage.
And selling “Le torchon terrible”? Oh yeah, that’s absolutely Knott too.
Despite being undefeated, the Vikings offense is so incredibly Knott.
You know we all love Blue, but, even if it’s just a practice, this dancing is very Knott.
Meeting the President isn’t technically bad; someone somewhere likes him. But when you fail to score any points in the second half after meeting him, then it becomes very Knott. Let that be a lesson to you all.  
On a similar theme, random politicians turning up to watch a team practice is very Knott too. Joe Burrow seemed suitably nonplussed that he was being asked questions about the Vice President instead of football.

Not knowing the rules of football is very Knott. If this is exactly how Ben Johnson and Press Taylor drew this play up, then someone needs to go and read the rulebook again!

And on the topic of the rules, we are all Tom Brady when it comes to the officiating crew in Detroit. Even the consummate professional Kevin Burkhardt was struggling to maintain his diplomacy! And Dean Blandino was not having it!
But the dreadful calls weren’t isolated in Detroit. The Broncos had one too; Riley Moss is having a very average season, but this call is absolutely Knott.
And Cam Skattebo was penalised for not letting a potential tackler smash him. In what was an incredibly Knott week for zebras across the league, this could be the most Knott decision.
All this in a week when the NFL doled out fines for penalties that were missed by the on-field officials! The NFL recognising that officials missed some stone-cold penalty calls in Week 6. Fining Fred Warner is all well and good after the event, but these missed calls should have resulted in 30 penalty yards for the Commanders.
But it seems like all of the fines in the world won’t stop the 49ers from dishing out the helmet-to-helmet hits. This one is horribly Knott!

Not another helmet punch guys! We already talked about how Knott this is!

Dennis Allen’s prevent defense is utterly Knott. After lighting up the Falcons with defensive back blitzes in Week 6, Allen completely out-thought himself at the end of the first half and decided to put two safeties on the goal line, leaving Rhamondre Stevenson 45 yards to operate in. The only thing this is going to prevent is your own team’s success, Dennis old boy!
And, on the topic of Knott defense, the Patriots stink when they’re defending the pass!
It’s not just their pass defense, though; the Patriots’ offensive quality control coaches are Knott, or Josh McDaniels’ play calling is very Knott. Drake Maye’s second season with Josh MaccyD is becoming reminiscent of the coordinator’s second season with Mac Jones.
 
Jones and McDaniels went 10-7 in their first season together. The rookie QB threw 22 touchdowns with 13 interceptions. Their second year together was a different story, though: Jones only played in 14 games, but he threw 14 TD’s and 11 picks.
 
Maye has already thrown 11 scoring passes in 2026; he’s also thrown seven interceptions in six games! The Sophomore slump is real.
 
And finally, on the Patriots, is A.J. Brown broken? He’s been very Knott in 2026.
In surprising news, the Chiefs offense is very Knott this week. No Jaylon Moore is a problem, but the Josh Simmons story could be a huge story going forward.

But their third down defense is even more Knott!

The Falcons’ new profile pic seems very Knott. Good job Arthur Blank isn’t famously Jewish or anything.
It’s not cool to pick on rookie kickers, but Trey Smack is very Knott. The curse of Mason Crosby is alive and well.

It is cool to pick on Harrison Butker, and he’s Knott too.

A spaghetti sandwich is just too many carbs in one place, and trying to eat this in a football stadium would be a total disaster. Sorry, Marshall, this is just Knott.
And, finally, the hook and ladder is so Knott that we may as well just bury it.

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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