We couldn’t let today, Dec. 23, come and go by without recalling two historic games in Browns history.

Here’s a look, in chronological order:

*1951 – Los Angeles Rams 24, Browns 17 – NFL Championship Game – at Memorial Coliseum – The Browns had been in existence since 1946, and in those first five seasons, they had captured five league titles, the first four in the All-America Football Conference and the last one, in 1950, coming when they moved to the NFL and came from behind to edge the Rams, 30-28.

They had never tasted defeat when it counted the most.

That all ended when Norm Van Brocklin threw a 73-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Tom Fears with eight minutes left to hand head coach Paul Brown’s team the loss.

It was a numbing blow, knocking the aura of invincibility from the Browns and being the first of their three straight championship game defeats.

The Browns led 10-7 at halftime on Lou Groza’s booming 52-yard field goal and Otto Graham’s 17-yard TD pass to wingback Dub Jones.

The Rams took a 17-10 advantage in the fourth quarter before the Browns tied it on Ken Carpenter’s two-yard run. But that’s where they ran out of steam.

Graham threw for 280 yards and the TD, but he completed just 19 of 40 attempts and was intercepted three times. He was, though, the top rusher in the game with 43 yards in five carries.

Mac Speedie caught seven passes for 81 yards, while his fellow wide receiver, Dante Lavelli, had four receptions for 65 yards. Jones added four grabs for 62 yards, and Carpenter three catches for 49 yards.

It wasn’t enough, though.

*1989 – Browns 24, Houston Oilers 20 – at the Astrodome – Browns fullback Kevin Mack had run into all kinds of problems. He had gotten arrested in a drug sting and sat out even more time in being injured. But when the Browns needed him most, he was there, and productive.

With the Browns trailing 20-17 late in the regular-season finale and a winner-take-all for the division title, he put them – and the Oilers, as it were – onto his shoulders and, with a four-yard TD run with 39 seconds left, delivered a victory that clinched the AFC Central championship for Cleveland (9-6-1) for the fourth time in five seasons.

With a 32-yard field goal by Matt Bahr, in the last of his nine seasons with the team, and two long Bernie Kosar TD passes, a 68-yarder to running back Eric Metcalf and a 40-yarder to wide receiver Webster Slaughter, the Browns roared to a 17-0 second-quarter lead and appeared to be on the verge of putting the game away.

But the Oilers (9-7 and a wild-card qualifier) ran off 20 unanswered points to go ahead 20-17 in the fourth quarter. The last score was a TD after they got the ball back when Browns linebacker Clay Matthews intercepted a Warren Moon pass and then fumbled it away on an attempted lateral.

The Browns got the ball back at their 41 with 2½ minutes left and, with the help of two long Mack runs in his first extended playing of the season, moved to the Houston 4. From there, Mack took a handoff and carried the ball – and several Oilers defenders – into the end zone for the TD.

Mack’s teammates mobbed him on the field. It was hard to tell what made them happier, getting the victory and earning a trip to the playoffs for the fifth consecutive year, or because they were so happy for Mack, one of the most popular players in the modern history of the Browns.

Mack ended with 62 yards in 12 runs.

Kosar completed 18 of 36 passes for 228 yards and the two TDs with no interceptions. Wide receiver Reggie Langhorne had five receptions for 38 yards, wideout Brian Brennan added four catches for 34 yards, Metcalf’s two catches netted him 74 yards and Slaughter had 66 yards on three receptions.

But it was Mack who stood out the most, just when the Browns needed him most.