Kick just needs its persistent 60 degree staggercone adjusted into a ~15 degree cone that only persists while the foot is actually moving forward.
Knockdown needs to be more situation-dependent; a held strike to the head or legs should have a very high knockdown chance, but a near-glance to the torso shouldn't knockdown as much as it does now. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that torso hits shouldn't knockdown at all, at least with 1h blunt weapons.
But guess what? Any changes like the ones above require WSE programming, which only cmp can do, and cmp is busy with the new game. So enjoy over-the-top kicks and knockdown for the remaining life of the mod.