What’s Hot and What’s Knott – Wildcard Weekend

By Rhys Knott

After 18 weeks of teams jostling for position and trying to avoid the Wildcard weekend, the serious football finally began. Obviously, there was still some comical officiating, but everything else was serious. Dallas Goedert’s stiff arm was very serious. 

In short, rookies were hot. Discipline, however was Knott. 58 flags were thrown in the first five playoff games! Turning the ball over became hot too, even though there were two clean games defenses still snaffled the ball with the ball 12 times! 

Playing well for one half and struggling through the other 30 minutes of football became trendy too. Pittsburgh looked completely disinterested in the first half against Baltimore as they went 21-0 down. Jalen Hurst didn’t complete a pass during the second and third quarters! And that was against a Packers team who are as injured as they are talented. 

Josh Allen’s Bills team didn’t really click in the first half. They woke up once Will Lutz had absolutely hammered a 50-yard field goal attempt off the goal post as time expired in the first half. 

It took the Chargers until the fourth quarter to score their first touchdown (it was a doozy though). But even then the Texans blocked the extra point attempt! They proceeded to return it for two points of their own. 

There was a “Divisional doink” and Sterling Shepherd’s adorable assistants returned too.

What’s Hot in football – Wildcard Weekend

Two words, “Ladd”, and “McConkey”. Or, to give him his full name Little Ladd McConkey, he’s listed as six feet tall, but they must have measured him with his cleats on. It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog as those No Fear t-shirts used to say.  

McConkey absolutely dominated the Texans’ defense with 197 receiving yards from nine catches, including this 86-yard beauty. 

Unfortunately for the Chargers Little Ladd accounted for 81% of their total receiving yards! The rookie’s receiving yards equated to 75% of their total offense! 261 yards of total offense isn’t going to win many games and it didn’t. 

Another rookie, Troy Franklin scored on a 43-yard reception from Bo Nix. The pair became the first rookie quarterback and receiver partnership to combine for a playoff touchdown in the history of the NFL! 

Elsewhere rookies Jalen McMillan and Cade Stover got in on the action too. But it wasn’t just the rookie receivers who lit up the playoffs. Jayden Daniels (who should be getting as much MVP hype as Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson are) did Jayden Daniels things. He even went fully Nelly (the 90’s rapper, not the elephant). 

Daniels threw for 268 yards with two touchdowns and ran for 36 more. The rookie accounted for 87% of the Commanders’ total yards!

Quarterbacks using their legs to kickstart their offense became a thing in Wildcard Weekend. It wasn’t just the usual suspects Daniels, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson playing a significant role in their team’s run games. Bo Nix, C.J. Stroud and Baker Mayfield (who channelled his inner Derrick Henry) all had to run the ball to loosen up the opposing defense. 

Jordan Love, Justin Fields and Russell Wilson didn’t really feature in their games. They only had five carries between them, but they averaged 3.2 yards per carry. More usage would have added an extra dimension to their struggling offenses. 

It wasn’t just the offensive rookies who were hot. There are some great rookie defensive backs too (the 2024 draft class is historically great), Cooper DeJean and Terrion Arnold looked at home in the playoffs as the Eagles stumbled past the Packers. The Texans’ Kamari Lassiter stole the show when he did this though.

Derrick Henry was hot (when isn’t he?), King Henry carried the football for 186 rushing yards and two touchdowns. His performance against an insipid Steelers team is his fourth playoff game with more than 150 yards on the ground, equaling Terrell Davis’ record. The Ravens rushed for 299 yards on 50 carries! 

Four running backs in total crossed the 100-yard mark. James Cook, Saquon Barkley (of course) and Joe Mixon all joined Henry in the rarefied air, but nobody came within 66 yards of the king of the north. 

Speaking of the Ravens, one of their flock had a momentary psychological breakdown and decided to get a tattoo live on TV.

Finally, to the special teams. Riley Dixon was hot too, not just because he can kick a football, but because he can also throw a football. If he’s not careful he’ll be the Jets starting QB in 2025. 

Zane Gonzalez must have been close to having a heart attack when the football did this when he kicked his last-second field goal. 

What’s Knott in Football – Wildcard Weekend

The Steelers run defense was absolutely Knott. When your opposition run the football 50 times you’ve had a really bad night. They weren’t the only ones who demonstrated their deficiencies rather than their talent with the football during Wildcard Weekend. 

Justin Herbert threw four interceptions (although one was definitely not his fault). The reason Jim Harbaugh returned to the NFL only completed 44% and ended the game against a very dodgy Texans team with a 13.1 QBR! 

The Broncos’ run game ranked worst in the playoffs for DVOA (defense-adjusted value over average), they were 29th in the league at the end of the regular season. That didn’t stop Sean Payton from trying to run all over the Bills’ 12th-ranked run defense. The Broncos ended up punting the football away four times and the Bills held possessed the ball for 41 minutes and 43 seconds!

You might think that would have led to Sean Payton changing his plan, but instead, he decided to yell at defensive coordinator Vance Joseph (who will interview for the Raiders head coach role). 

A.J. Brown found the Packers’ offense so boring that he read a book instead of watching them.

Then there was the officiating, how was this a touchdown? Nobody knows. Well, nobody except the zebras.

Lastly, but by no means least the “doink” is not a good sound for kickers (unless you’re Zane Gonzalez). It’s quite amusing if you didn’t kick the ball, but Will Lutz’s kick made the doink that was heard around the world (well, in Niagara maybe). 

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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