Saturday was a day of firsts for Baker Mayfield –– but it didn’t include his first Christmas Day win.
For the first time in his career, Mayfield threw four interceptions in a game, and Cleveland fell in a nail-biter at Green Bay, 24-22.
Mayfield finished the day 21-for-36 passing for 222 yards, two TDs and four picks, registering a quarterback rating of 55.3, his second-lowest rating of the season and the seventh-lowest rating of his career.
He was also sacked five times on the day.
Remarkably –– despite Aaron Rodgers completing 24 of 34 passes for 202 yards, three TDs and no turnovers –– the Browns were in the game until the end, mainly due to their potent rushing attack.
Nick Chubb put up 126 rushing yards and a TD on 17 carries, and as a team, the Browns rushed for 219 yards, their second-highest total of the season.
Coming into Saturday, Cleveland was 7-2 on the season when rushing for at least 100 yards and 3-1 when Chubb hit the 100-yard mark.
And with 2:05 to go, and the Browns trailing by just two, it looked like they had a chance to improve upon that record, starting what would be their final drive at their own 25-yard line.
However, Cleveland was only able to move the ball to the 50-yard line before the turnover bug bit Mayfield once again –– on a pick that wasn’t entirely his fault.
Unfortunately for Mayfield and Cleveland, a referee missing a potential game-changing call doesn’t fit in the box score, and the Browns are now 7-8, last in the AFC North and 13th in the AFC playoff standings.
Saturday represented Mayfield’s first game with at least three INTs since Week 17 of the 2019 season. Since 2018, when Mayfield entered the NFL, he has thrown 54 interceptions in the regular season, the most among all QBs since 2018.
The difficult Christmas outing just added to a rough stretch for Mayfield, who has now been held below 250 passing yards in eight straight starts, tied with Trevor Lawrence for the longest active streak in the NFL.
And it appears that the fewer passes Mayfield throws, the more success Cleveland has, considering the Browns are now 5-16 (.238) in the regular season when Baker has 35-plus pass attempts in a game. They are 24-13 (.649) when he has less than 35 pass attempts.
Here is how the internet reacted to Mayfield’s Christmas Day struggles, including Mayfield himself:
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