Tennessee football: How former Vols played in 2019 NFL Wild Card round
Despite the Houston Texans looking awful on offense in Deshaun Watson’s first playoff start, Trevor Daniel was nearly flawless. He did a great job continuing the tradition of Punter U for Tennessee football.
And remember, Daniel is a rookie! This was his first playoff start. Houston’s loss to the Indianapolis Colts was not on him, and in fact, he may deserve credit for helping to hold that red-hot offense behind Andrew Luck to just 21 points. More help from the offense could have spelled a victory.
Anyway, Daniel had five punts and averaged 46.8 yards per punt. He also nailed two punts inside the 20-yard line and separately had a 60-yarder. The only punt that could have been better was his first one, which only went 40 yards and spotted Indy the ball on their own 26-yard line.
Still, in the second half, he was THE reason the Colts didn’t score. Daniel’s two punts inside the 20 were in that half, and his other punt was a 60-yarder. So he did his job to help the Texans win this game, and that’s why he’s No. 2 on this list. Given this play as a rookie, it’s sad that he’s going home early.