The clock is ticking on the Cleveland Browns’ season. They had one goal to complete this year while Deshaun Watson served his 11-game suspension: survive. Just long enough for him to get back and potentially lead a run to the playoffs.

With a 23-20 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, the Browns are running out of daylight and it may be too late to get their season back on the rails before Watson's return, which is expected to be Dec. 4 at the Houston Texans.

Jacoby Brissett is a fine option to start at quarterback for a few games, but at this point in his career starting him for 11 games was always going to be dicey. That’s the risk that the Browns accepted when they shipped off three first-round draft picks to Houston for a quarterback facing the volume of civil lawsuits alleging sexual assault and misconduct that Watson was. Now, they’ve found themselves in a hole that’ll be hard to dig out of.

In theory, this Browns team was designed to play games without a star quarterback. They have a rock-solid offensive line, two of the best running backs in the league and a talented defense on paper. Nick Chubb has done his part to secure some wins for the Browns, but they haven’t put together enough complete performances to consistently get across the finish line.

Now, they sit at 2-5 with the Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals each moving to 4-3 this weekend. If the Ravens and Bengals can play up to their talent and keep stacking wins, it’s going to be even tougher for the Browns to get back into the AFC playoff race.

They've had some close losses, particularly in this game against the Ravens and in losses against the New York Jets and Atlanta Falcons. Perhaps the presence of Watson would have been enough to get them wins in a couple of those games, but that’s not the reality that the Browns are facing.

This team is in win-now mode. That’s the commitment that was made in acquiring Watson. Even with Brissett in the game, the Browns should be expecting more out of the players they have on the field — particularly on defense. They held Lamar Jackson and the Ravens to 23 points, but for the most part they’ve been struggling on that side of the ball. An expensive secondary with a lot of picks spent on it has underachieved.

This scenario for the Browns was predictable, but it’s still arguably the worst case that they could have foreseen for themselves. They’re another loss or two away from having an insurmountable hole to make it to the playoffs.

As things stand, they’ll be forking over a top-five draft pick to the Texans for their troubles this season. That stings, because this Browns team has issues that Watson won’t be able to fix by himself.