NFL
Russell Wilson End Zone INT ‘Triggered’ Former Teammate Richard Sherman
Tim Crean started writing about sports in 2016 and joined Sportscasting in 2021. He excels with his versatile coverage of the NFL and soccer landscape, as well as his expertise breaking down sports media, which stems from his many years downloading podcasts before they were even cool and countless hours spent listening to Mike & The Mad Dog and The Dan Patrick Show, among other programs. As a longtime self-professed sports junkie who even played DII lacrosse at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, Tim loves reading about all the latest sports news every day and considers it a dream to write about sports professionally. He's a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan from Western New York who mistakenly thought, back in the early '90s, that his team would be in the Super Bowl every year. He started following European soccer — with a Manchester City focus — in the early 2000s after spending far too much time playing FIFA. When he's not enjoying a round of golf or coaching youth soccer and flag football, Tim likes reading the work of Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Chuck Klosterman, and Tom Wolfe.
Get to know Tim Crean betterPublished08 Oct 2022
The year was 2015. Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson and Amazon Prime analyst Richard Sherman were teammates with the Seattle Seahawks. On February 1 that year, Wilson and Sherman’s Seahawks were a yard away from winning back-to-back Super Bowls. All the team needed to do was hand the ball to Pro Bowl running back Marshawn Lynch. Instead, Wilson threw an interception in the end zone, and the Seahawks lost the Big Game.
Kicking off Week 5 of the 2022 NFL season on Thursday Night Football, Wilson found himself in a similar situation at the end of the game against the Indianapolis Colts. And this time, the result was the same. The irony wasn’t lost on Sherman, who was co-hosting the Amazon postgame show. The former defensive back admitted the play gave him “flashbacks” and “triggered” him.
Richard Sherman just wants Russell Wilson’s teams to “run the ball!”
The stakes — a game between a 2-2 and a 1-2-1 team in Week 5 vs. the Super Bowl — were a lot different, but fans and pundits alike couldn’t help but notice the similarities between the end of the Thursday Night Football game between the Broncos and Colts and Super Bowl 44.
In an ugly Thursday night contest, the Colts and Broncos went to overtime tied 9-9. After Matt Ryan led the Colts to a field goal, Russell Wilson led a 70-yard drive to get his team down to the Indianapolis 5-yard line.
Facing 4th-and-1, Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett decided to put his trust in Wilson and let the O go for it instead of kicking the FG and extending the game with 2:38 to play. The first-year Broncos QB responded by missing a wide-open K.J. Hamler on his right and throwing a ball to a covered Courtland Sutton that Stephon Gilmore intercepted to end the game.
Following the pick, former Legion of Boom corner Richard Sherman could barely contain himself on the Amazon Prime postgame set.
“I’m just triggered! I’m triggered,” Sherman yelled as host Charissa Thompson tried to introduce the show. After that, Thompson let the noted Wilson hater go.
Sherman started by talking about the Broncos not running the ball near the end of regulation to put the game away, instead opting to “put the ball in his hands,” referring to Wilson. “It just triggered me. It was like, ooh, flashbacks,” Sherman said about that.
Then, discussing the overtime end zone interception, Sherman said, “On the final play, you gotta run the ball, again. I wish I had Marshawn (Lynch) up here. Like, one yard. You need one yard. Run the ball. Run the ball! CT, all he has to do is run the football. Necessary criticism. I’ve said enough criticism for him — but God dang, run the dang ball! Like, learn from your mistakes!”
As Sherman alluded to, he’s been a vocal Russell Wilson critic even before he left the Seahawks. However, this game showed that while Wilson is on a new team, many of his old problems are the same.
The Denver Broncos are in trouble
The overtime loss to the Colts pushed the Broncos’ record to 2-3 this season. After an offseason that brought in Pro Bowl QB Russell Wilson, that’s far worse than fans, media, and the franchise itself expected.
Even with Wilson and former Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett as the head coach, the Denver O has been awful this season. The Broncos came into the Week 5 game as the 30th-ranked scoring offense and ranked 21st in yards gained.
The team hasn’t been good, but it still found itself in a position to win on several occasions. The irony of Thursday’s loss is that going for it on 4th down seems like a direct reaction to the team’s Week 1 loss.
In the season opener vs. Wilson’s old team, the Seahawks, among several poor game and time decisions, Hackett decided not to go for it at eth end of the game, instead opting to kick a 64-yard field goal (which Brandon McManus missed).
In the cutthroat AFC West, the Broncos could now fall two games behind the Kanas City Chiefs for the division if Patrick Mahomes and company get a Week 5 win vs. the Las Vegas Raiders.
That’s not a death sentence, but between the record, the scoring, and the eye test on the field, it’s safe to say that Russell Wilson and the Broncos are in trouble.
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