Lloyd – who now has 896 career goals – had been criticised during the week after his first two matches returned just three behinds, but he steamed back in classic fashion, taking several screamers and kicking 5.1, with the behind hitting the post.
He kicked the only Essendon major of the first term, another in the second as the Bombers outscored the Blues seven goals to three, and then three in the third term as his team established a lead they would not surrender.
All Lloyd's goals came from marks, both on the lead and over or in the middle of packs.
Knights said he was thrilled for the skipper, who he said gave 100 per cent every week.
"I thought Matthew's work rate last week was pretty good for not a lot of reward in regards to marks or goals," he said after the game.
"So therefore I spoke about him flat-lining his effort, and he does, that's just what he does.
"His effort will be the same, week in, week out.
"So therefore he gives himself an opportunity to take marks and kick goals, and he did that tonight, and I thought his courage on a couple of occasions was absolutely superb, and an inspiration to our team."
Fellow veteran forward Scott Lucas had also been questioned after just two goals in the two matches, but Knights said the criticism didn't lead them to change anything.
"The plan before the game was for Lloyd and Lucas to rotate and to spend time deep forward and up the ground as a high forward, so I left that to them to run the show out on the ground.
"And then Patrick Ryder and David Hille also spent time forward, so at times we felt we were a bit big upfront, but it was probably one area of the game that we did think they were a little bit vulnerable, which was on the hotspot area, and we did have the big targets to go at.
"So we had to use that as a strength against probably their rebound, which they're very good at."
