An overutitlized word, a lot of journalists write things like dropped to
make their
writing sound tougher. If a guy hasn't landed on his head, or fell 2 or more storeys against his will, he wasn't really dropped, he was just knocked down (if he went all the way down).
Quarterbacks who got
sacked didn't get dropped (no matter how many yards they lost in
the process), they got knocked down. The same applies to a guy getting knocked down in any other
sport.