It's the season for relaxing at home if you aren't working and, hopefully, dealing with very little people in your work if you are. This week is, ideally, all about enjoying some classic NFL holiday and holiday-adjacent games that are going to be broadcasted in a variety of ways this year.
One early gift to Cleveland Browns fans, though, is that they don't have to watch their team play on a day that most NFL fans will be tapped into the national action - on Christmas day. At 3-12, the last thing the Browns needed was a way to showcase their ineptitude on the national stage
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That might be why, historically, the Browns aren't a team that are featured very often on Christmas. It wasn't until 2021 when the team finally got their chance to shine on the national stage during a Christmas game against the Green Bay Packers on the road. It'd be the first Christmas game for many of the players on the roster, but biggest of all, for Baker Mayfield.
Things in this road game didn't exactly go according to plan for the Browns, though.
Cleveland's loss to the Packers on Christmas Day in 2021
Jumping back in time to a moment when the Browns felt like they had a franchise quarterback in Mayfield and still had a formidable defense led by Myles Garrett, they entered this contest against the Packers in 2021 with a record of 7-7. The Packers, on the flip side, headed into the game 11-3 and looked primed for a deep run in the postseason with Aaron Rodgers about to exit his prime.
This game couldn't have gone much worse for Mayfield. He threw four interceptions to his two touchdowns, and got sacked a total of five times. The Browns forced zero turnovers on the Packers and allowed Rodgers to record a 115.1 passer rating on the game. Cleveland got the game to within two points with a late game touchdown pass from Mayfield to Anthony Schwartz, but couldn't capitalize.
With just under 50 seconds to go in regulation and on a potential game winning drive, Mayfield was picked off for the fourth time in the game. It was a heartbreaking end to what seemed like a potentially huge comeback for Cleveland in a game that essentially sealed their fate in the AFC North and the AFC in general.
The one player that stood out for positive reasons, though, was Nick Chubb. He was sensational in this one Christmas game, going for one score and 126 total rushing yards. He was completely locked in and looked explosive, with his longest run going for 26 yards. Running through defenders and utilizing a ton of blocking is exactly what Browns fans hope Chubb can revert to in 2025 and beyond.
For Mayfield, this was one of this last games as a Brown. The team lost their subsequent game to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 17, won their final game against the Cincinnati Bengals, and then wiped their hands clean of Mayfield by sending him off to the Carolina Panthers for a 2024 fifth round pick.
This marked the end of Cleveland's chance at becoming a consistent postseason team, as they brought in Deshaun Watson in 2022 and have been middling ever since.
It'd be nice to look back on their one Christmas game and see a victory, but if anything, this game ended up marking a turning point for the worse for the Browns.