The Browns have been busy on today’s date, Dec. 19, through the years.
They captured one of their eight league championships on this date and paid homage to their perfection by being nearly perfect.
They had their last dress rehearsal before playing for a league title, and in process got some revenge.
They remained red-hot as they put the finishing touches on a division crown and headed to the playoffs.
And finally, one of their top players in the modern era, and one of their most popular all-time, had his coming-out party on this date.
Lets’s take a look:
*1948 – Browns, 49, Buffalo Bills 7 – All-America Football Conference Championship Game — at Cleveland – The Browns were perfect in 1948. They didn’t lose a game, finishing 15-0. And, fittingly so, they were almost perfect in blasting the Bills to win the AAFC title for the third year in as many tries.
Indeed, the Browns hardly broke a sweat in extending their winning streak to 18 games dating back to the end of the 1947 season, and their unbeaten streak to 24 contest going back to the midway point of ’47. Cleveland, which had had tough games against the New York Yankees in winning the title the previous two seasons, bolted to a 28-0 lead in the third quarter. Then, after the Bills scored, they added three more TDs to put some exclamation points behind their victory.
Fullback Marion Motley was unstoppable, rushing 14 times for 133 yards and three TDs from 29, 31 and five yards. He averaged a whopping 9.5 yards per carry.
The Browns also scored twice defensively on left end George Young’s 18-yard fumble return and middle linebacker Lou Saban’s 39-yard interception return.
The 49 points scored was a season high for the Browns, and it marked the 11th time that they had tallied at least 28 points.
It was also the fifth time in 1948 that Cleveland had held opponents to seven points.
In their third year of existence, the Browns were 41-3-1 overall.
*1965 – Browns 27, St. Louis Cardinals 24 – at St. Louis – The defending NFL champions finished out their regular season at 11-3, getting their most wins in 12 years, and prepared to head back to the title game.
And they did so against a Cardinals team that had embarrassed them in Week 2 at Cleveland by winning 49-13. So the revenge was sweet.
The Browns roared to a 17-0 second-quarter lead on Frank Ryan’s 13-yard pass to wide receiver Gary Collins, Jim Brown’s three-yard scoring run and a 44-yard field goal by Lou Groza, who was a month away from celebrating his 42nd birthday.
They were going in for another TD and a 24-0 lead later in the quarter when Ryan’s pass was intercepted by safety Larry Wilson and returned 96 yards for a score. That ignited the Cardinals, who ran off 17 more points to lead 24-17 in the fourth quarter.
Then the Browns got it back together and scored 10 points to earn the win on Groza’s 45-yard field goal and Ryan’s TD pass to backup wide receiver Tom Hutchinson.
Hutchinson had one of the biggest game of his career, catching four passes for 77 yards, while tight end Johnny Brewer added five receptions for 51 yards.
Brown gained 74 yards in 12 carries.
*1971 – Browns 20, Washington Redskins 13 – at Washington – Having already clinched the AFC Central title for the first time, the Browns could have simply gone through the motions. But they chose to play hard so they could go into the playoffs on a high note with a five-game winning streak.
The Br owns, who were 4-5 at one point with four straight losses in which they scored a combined total of just 30 points, rebounded to tally 27 or more points in three of those last five games in finishing 9-5.
It enabled the Browns to return to the postseason after missing out in 1970 for the first time in four years.
The contest against Washington went back and forth early. With Don Cockroft’s 30-yard field goal and Bill Nelsen’s 17-yard TD pass to Collins, the Browns trailed 13-10 at halftime.
The Browns rallied for the win by scoring the only 10 points of the second half on another Cockroft field goal, this one from 32 yards, and another TD pass by Nelsen, a four-yarder to backup tight end Chip Glass.
Three players – tight end Milt Morin and wide receivers Frank Pitts and Fair Hooker – caught three passes each from Nelsen, who completed 15 of 23 attempts for 165 yards with two interceptions.
*1982 – Browns 10, Pittsburgh Steelers 9 – at Cleveland – Second-year cornerback Hanford Dixon jump-started his career and the Browns jump-started their season against their arch rivals.
Dixon, drafted in the first round, at No. 22 overall, in 1981, tied a team record with three interceptions, all off Terry Bradshaw. Bradshaw was intercepted four times overall and was held to 12 of 39 passing for 144 yards and one TD.
The Browns entered the game at 2-4 with three straight losses and used the victory to finish 4-5 and make the playoffs in the strike-shortened season.
Matt Bahr, in his first “full” season with the Browns after spending his first two years with Pittsburgh, kicked a 44-yard field goal in the first quarter. Then fullback Johnny “The B-1 Bomber” Davis scored his only TD of the season on a three-yard run in the third quarter to give the Browns a 10-7 lead.
Paul McDonald got his first start at quarterback for a struggling Brian Sipe and passed for 227 yards. Three Browns – wide receivers Dwight Walker and Dave Logan, and tight end Ozzie Newsome – had four receptions each.
