Rams vs. Broncos score, takeaways: Tyler Higbee, Cam Akers combine for five TDs as Los Angeles drops 50 in win

The Rams made easy work of Russell Wilson and Co. on Christmas Day

In the second of three Christmas Day NFL games, the Los Angeles Rams blasted the Denver Broncos 51-14 in an extremely lopsided affair. Denver got off to about as disastrous a start to the game as is humanly possible, with Russell Wilson getting picked off on two of his first three pass attempts. The interceptions by Cobie Durant and Bobby Wagner -- Wilson's longtime Seattle Seahawks teammate -- set up end-zone trips for Tyler Higbee and Cam Akers, and the Rams staked themselves to a 17-0 lead just over 10 minutes into the game. Things did not get any better for the Broncos from there.

Baker Mayfield, meanwhile, started off white-hot, completing 12 of his first 13 passes for 119 yards and two touchdowns, with Higbee on the receiving end of each. Mayfield finished the day 24 of 28 for 230 yards and those two scores, calmly distributing the ball to a variety of receivers (but mostly Higbee, who racked up nine grabs for 94 yards on his 11 targets) throughout the evening. Akers had his best game of the season, rushing 23 times for 118 yards and three touchdowns. 

On defense, Michael Hoecht finished with three sacks and three tackles for loss, while Larrell Murchison finished with two of each. Wagner added a sack, a tackle for loss, a pass defensed, and two quarterback hits to his aforementioned interception. Cobie Durant finished with two interceptions, including a pick-six that he returned 85 yards late in the fourth.

Why the Rams won

The Rams dominated the game from the jump, making it look like the Broncos barely bothered showing up. It was L.A.'s best performance of the season, bar none, as the Rams reached a season-high in points by halftime and did not let up from there. They ran the ball at will, gained chunk gains through the air, and prevented the Denver offense from doing anything of note other than turning the ball over, until the result was no longer in doubt.

Why the Broncos lost

Russell Wilson put forth one of the most damaging performances from any quarterback this season, throwing two interceptions in his own territory within the first 10 minutes of the game, taking six sacks that combined to lose 41 yards, and later short-circuiting what was looking like Denver's best drive of the day with yet another interception. Through three quarters, Wilson averaged -0.56 EPA per dropback, the fourth-worst mark of any qualifying quarterback in any game this season, according to Tru Media. His fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Greg Dulcich was utterly meaningless, and came at a time where people were openly questioning why he was in the game anymore anyway. (The Broncos were down 41-6 with around eight minutes left.)

As if that wasn't bad enough the vaunted Denver pass defense was torn asunder by Baker Mayfield. I'm not sure there was a single defender within five yards of Tyler Higbee on any of his eight first-half catches. I began at one point to wonder whether he was somehow camouflaging himself on the field, and the Broncos literally could not see him. The Broncos' run defense was also ripped apart by Akers -- previously averaging 3.5 yards per carry on the season and who earlier this year was inactive and away from the team because he was benched due to extreme ineffectiveness -- who rushed for 118 yards and three touchdowns on 23 totes. 

Turning point

I was tempted to just write, "the opening kickoff," but I suppose I'll choose an actual event that, in theory, turned the game. It was Russell Wilson's second pass attempt of the evening, and it saw him overshoot his intended receiver (Courtland Sutton) by, like, a lot. 

Sutton wasn't open anyway, as Durant was sitting in the path of his route and basically just waiting for the ball to arrive. It eventually did, Durant picked it off (making a pretty outrageous play on the ball, which was necessitated due to how awful a throw it was), the Rams walked right down the field, and they scored the first of their many touchdowns. It was pretty much a laugher from there.

Highlight play

A few moments later, on Wilson's third pass attempt of the evening, he tried to hit tight end Greg Dulcich on a sit route over the middle of the field. Only, he didn't see his former teammate, Bobby Wagner, lurking right there and baiting him into the throw. What followed foreshadowed the game's result, as Wagner stepped right in front of Dulcich for the Rams' second pick of the game. 

Cam Akers found the end zone two plays later, and that was pretty much that. 

What's next

The Rams improve to 5-10 with the win. They remain incapable of making the playoffs this season, and their Week 17 game was accordingly flexed out of the Sunday Night Football slot. They take on their SoFi Stadium brethren, the Los Angeles Chargers, in what is technically a Chargers home game. They then visit the division-rival Seattle Seahawks in the final week of the regular season. They'll be giving a high draft pick to the Detroit Lions, thanks to the Matthew Stafford trade, but their two wins in the last three weeks have made that pick a bit worse than it looked like it had a chance to be. 

The Broncos are 4-11 after the loss, and are long since eliminated from the playoffs. They travel to Kansas City to take on MVP favorite Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs next week, then host the Chargers in Week 18. They will also be giving away a high draft pick, thanks to their trade for a new quarterback, with a probable top-five selection heading to the Seahawks. 

[Dec 25, 2022 at 7:34 pm ET · Jared Dubin]

The game is over. The Rams have won 51-14. If you for some reason watched this entire thing, salute to you, my friend.

[Dec 25, 2022 at 7:23 pm ET · Jared Dubin]

Rypien is 4-8 with a pick-six. Cobie Durant's second interception of the game and he takes it to the house.

[Dec 25, 2022 at 7:23 pm ET · Jared Dubin]

Rypien is now 4-7.

[Dec 25, 2022 at 7:21 pm ET · Jared Dubin]

There's a Chase Edmonds sighting. Rypien, by the way, starts his night 4-4 passing. Why Courtland Sutton (who has missed games with injury) is still on the field to be on the receiving end of one of those passes, I could not possibly tell you.

[Dec 25, 2022 at 7:19 pm ET · Jared Dubin]

Brett Rypien is in the game. He should have been in earlier. 

[Dec 25, 2022 at 7:18 pm ET · Jared Dubin]

Nice evening for Matt Gay, now 3-3 with two of those kicks coming from 50+ yards.

[Dec 25, 2022 at 7:12 pm ET · Jared Dubin]

It is now 41-14. The Broncos just need to recover an onside kick, score a touchdown, recover an onside kick, score a touchdown, recover an onside kick, score a touchdown, recover an onside kick, and score another touchdown to get a win.