CLEVELAND — There’s nothing Super about the Steelers anymore.

The defending NFL champions lost their fifth straight and had their playoff hopes thrown for a loss by the lowly Browns, who ended a 12-game skid against their bitter rival by beating the Steelers 13-6 last night in sub-zero wind chills.

Ben Roethlisberger was sacked eight times and lost for the first time in 11 career games against the Browns (2-11), who extended Pittsburgh’s longest losing streak in six years and defeated the Steelers (6-7) at home for the first time since 2000.

Pittsburgh is going to need help to make the playoffs, a stunning freefall for a team that hit the season’s halfway point at 6-2.

Unexpected losses to Kansas City, Oakland and Cleveland — three of the NFL’s worst teams with a combined record of 9-28 — have pushed the Steelers to the brink.

“To lose five straight coming off a Super Bowl from last year is embarrassing,” wide receiver Hines Ward said. “There’s nothing fun about losing games, especially five in a row. We’re better than that. We should play better than that.”

Chris Jennings, who began the season on Cleveland’s practice squad, scored on a 10-yard run and Phil Dawson kicked a pair of 29-yard field goals for the Browns, who snapped a seven-game losing streak, a 10-game slide at home and beat the Steelers for just the second time in 20 games.

The win was just the second for Cleveland’s embattled first-year coach Eric Mangini, who certainly helped his job security by beating Pittsburgh, something no Browns coach had done since Chris Palmer nine years ago.