What’s Hot and What’s Knott in Football – Week 8

By Rhys Knott

Bouncebackability is hot in Week 8. C.J Stroud and the Houston Texans
returned to winning ways against the most injured team in the NFL (a win is a win, though). The Dolphins transformed from one of the worst teams in the league to one that can stop the run and score 34 points. The Jets unexpectedly rebounded from being 31-16 down to winning 39-38! And the Packers overturned a nine-point deficit in Pittsburgh! 

Throwback unis made a bounceback too, but they’re not all as hot as the Eagles’ Kelly green.

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What’s Hot in Football – Week 8

First things first, those Broncos throwbacks are so hot that they’re wearing them for three more games this season!

Jonathan Taylor is also hot, MVP hot! 

James Cook is hotter than hot in Week 8. He didn’t so much run all over the Panthers as run all around the Panthers. Ejiro Evero won’t want to see this run chart.

But it’s not all about the running backs. Quarterbacks came to play, too, in Week 8, dropping it in the bucket is suddenly hot. Everyone is doing it, just watch Drake Maye to Kayshon Boutte.

Bo Nix provided Pat Bryant with his first NFL touchdown with this dime.

Aaron Rodgers demonstrates the pinpoint accuracy you need to beat the Packers’ secondary.

Jordan Love wouldn’t be outdone, though.

And any day you get to see Joe Milton play is a good day. Even if it is against a Denver defense that knows the game is over, this is frankly just rude.

Tua might not have been dropping it any buckets, but he did throw it back with a little help from Jalen Waddle.

Defenders didn’t just roll over, though; there are some circus catch interceptions, too. Watch 6-foot-6, 260-pound A.J. Epenesa use his feet to make Andy Dalton look silly.

Not to be outdone, 6-foot-7 Anthony Nelson played patticake with this Spencer Rattler pass.

And, albeit for a brief moment in time, Deondre Tillman became Cedric Tillman in Denver.

Myles Garrett isn’t just hot in Week 8; he’s been hot his entire career.

But, more importantly than all of that, National Tight End Day is smoking hot! Dallas Goedert led the way with his two touchdowns against a dismal Giants defense. 

Then Tucker Kraft put a tin lid on it!

A total of 12 tight ends found the endzone on their national holiday!

In a very vanilla Thursday Night Football, the Vikings and Chargers demonstrated just how difficult it is to play quarterback when the starting left tackle is out. The navy colour rush unis are hot though! 

Chargers’ left tackle Rashawn Slater will miss he entire season with a torn patella tendon, and Christian Darrisaw only managed nine snaps for the Vikings! That meant Carson Wentz saw a season high 34.4% pressure rate! 

Justin Herbert faced a 29.4% pressure rate (his highest of the season is 41.5%), but the 27-year-old took off and scrambled seven times to avoid being sacked.

Wentz didn’t scramble at all and finished the game with a finger injury and a reaggravated shoulder injury! 

Another tight end, Oronde Gadsden was hot again (not as hot as he was in Week 7), and Ladd McConkey had his best game since Week 2. 

The Chargers’ offense revolved around the run game, though, and Kimani Vidal was white hot! Justin Herbert’s legs provided another dimension, too, and everyone’s favourite Colin Farrell lookalike is definitely hot again this week. Watch him drop this into the bucket for Ladd McConkey!

What’s Knott in Football – Week 8

On the other side of the same coin, the Vikings’ defense is so Knott. 

Brian Flores’ unit led the league in turnovers in 2024 and was the second-best run defense last season. Any good statistician will tell you that turnovers are random events, so there’s always some regression to the mean there; consequently, the 2025 Vikings are 13th for turnovers. 

The run defense is a total disaster, though. They rank 18th for rushing yards allowed and 24th for the number of rushing attempts they have faced because everyone knows they can run against them. 

Minnesota has a completely different defensive line starting this season, with Jerry Tillery signing for the Chiefs in free agency, Harrison Phillips being traded to the Jets and heading to New Orleans. 

The new iteration of the defensive line of Jonathan Allen, Jalen Redmond and Javon Hargrave ranks 16th after Week 6 according to PFF. They held the Eagles to just 45 yards, which was the second time this season they held a team under 100 yards on the ground. It didn’t help them against the Chargers, though. Los Angeles lit them up for 207 yards on the ground! 

Most worryingly for Vikings fans and Flores himself is how the number of ways a team can beat them. Even though they stopped the Eagles’ run game, Jalen Hurts racked up 326 passing yards and threw three touchdowns to boot.  Andrew van Ginkel is a huge miss for the Vikings defense, but even he can’t fix all of their issues. 

Andy Dalton hadn’t started since Week 7 last year, and it showed. The Red Rifle (petition to change that nickname to the Red Flag, anyone?) completed 16/24 passes for 175 yards. The 37-year-old managed to take seven sacks, throw that hilarious interception to A.J. Epenesa and do this. 

Shawn Hochuli’s officiating crew is so Knott. It’s inconceivable anyone could miss this penalty.

But it’s easier to understand how this bunch miss calls when they can’t even maintain their own balance.

Believe it or not, there was a worse officiating decision than any that Hochuli’s team of stumbling, bumbling zebras made. The Giants recovered this tush-push related fumble, but the officials said “not so fast, guys”.  

Also in Philadelphia, Cam Skattebo’s dislocated ankle is very Knott and should signal the end of Brian Daboll’s employment in New York. 

Brandon McManus would be Knott if Jordan Love didn’t decide to beat the Steelers on his own. The Packers kicker was returning from injury, but he missed two first-half field goals that led to the Steelers opening a nine-point lead. 

Nothing is more Knott than the Packers throwback unis. It’s like they saw the Chargers’ abomination last week and thought, “we can do worse than that”. The white numbers on the front with black numbers on the back are bad enough, but those pants should be illegal! 

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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