Christmas Day 2022 will go down in history for Russell Wilson and the Broncos (4-11) after a downright miserable performance in a 51-14 loss to Baker Mayfield and the Rams (5-10) in Los Angeles.
Instead of bringing good news and cheers to their fans, Wilson and company served up a huge lump of bucks on national TV in a competition that also aired on Nickelodeon on a special holiday stream…poor kids. Denver’s misfortune began after LA took an early 3-0 lead when Wilson threw an interception on the third play of offense and two plays into the drive that followed.
The second INT, which went to Wilson’s old Seahawks teammate Bobby Wagner, had the pleasure of receiving a special play-by-play breakdown from beloved Spongebob character Patrick Star, who told viewers, “This isn’t that, what he wanted to cook.”
Ouch.
It went downhill from there, as the Rams hit quick touchdowns on their next two drives after turnovers, followed by three more TDs on their next four drives and a field goal that was mixed in for good measure. A couple of field goals from Brandon McManus erased the deficit, but the Broncos were still far behind at halftime when the Rams hit their highest performance of the season (!) with 31 points.
Wilson’s troubles continued in the second half with a third pick to end a brief five-game drive that set up another Rams field goal. Denver would eventually find the end zone two drives later in the fourth quarter, but by that point the damage had already been done in more ways than one.
Wilson was benched after the drive and finished the day 15 of 27 for 214 yards, a TD and three INTs while taking a whopping six sacks. Meanwhile, Mayfield resembled his gunslingers for the first time in a long time with a 24-of-28 tag for 230 yards and two points.
Denver’s general ineptitude sparked waves of roasting on social media from fans who couldn’t believe how an already losing season could hit a new low. Check out some of the best reactions to Wilson and the Broncos’ horrible, horrible, not good, very bad day below: