The Cleveland Browns have sworn they won’t be the second 0-16 team in NFL history, and yet one of their better chances to prevent that went by the wayside Thursday night.

The Browns dropped their 10th straight game of the season, their 13th overall dating back to last season and their 20th in 21 games in a 28-7 loss at the Baltimore Ravens. Dating back two years from this week, the Browns have gone 4-29 and the possibility of a winless season looks likely, even with three teams currently below .500 on their schedule in December.

It looked like it might be a long night for the Browns early. Like, before the first snap. Prior to the Ravens’ opening play on offense, the Browns had to burn a timeout to avoid a 12-men-on-the-field penalty. They roasted another one 4:32 into the game and punted their first three possessions.

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Still, they managed to take the lead and quiet the Baltimore crowd in the second quarter when Cody Kessler found rookie tight end Seth DeValve for a 25-yard TD on a nice-looking play. It was a bad beat: a third-string tight end from Princeton beating an All-Pro safety, the Ravens’ Eric Weddle, who got caught up in traffic.

On top of that, the Browns’ defense held the Ravens to 107 yards and three points in their first four possessions and picked off Joe Flacco inside the Cleveland 5-yard line. It was one of the Browns’ better defensive halves of the season. Even in allowing the Ravens to drive 57 yards in the final 1:39 of the half, the Browns kept everything in front of them and forced the Ravens to settle for a second Justin Tucker field goal and a 7-6 deficit at halftime.

The Browns led for the fourth time in this winless season, including the last time they played the Ravens this season. Baltimore ripped off 25 unanswered points in that first meeting, and 22 unanswered in Week 10.

The second half happened, and the tide turned quickly. The Ravens went hurry-up on their first possession and gutted the Browns with a nine-play, 68-yard drive that ended in a Darren Waller touchdown. It was Random Tight End Night at M&T Bank Stadium.

Then the Browns played their third quarterback of the night. Kessler started, Kevin Hogan inexplicably came in for a failed two-play sequence in the first half and then — with Kessler apparently healthy — the Browns turned to Josh McCown on the second possession of the third quarter. His second pass was tipped by the Ravens’ Terrell Suggs (who beat Joe Thomas on the pass rush) and intercepted by Jerraud Powers.

Even with Flacco returning the favor with an awful pick in the end zone on the Ravens’ ensuing drive, the Browns could not seize control back. They punted again, and Flacco hit Steve Smith — career reception No. 997 — for a touchdown. The two-point conversion made it 21-7 Ravens before the end of the third quarter.

A Flacco-to-Breshad Perriman touchdown capped a 90-yard drive midway through the fourth quarter and iced the game. Flacco is now 15-2 against the Browns in his career.

The Browns are not a lost cause. They have Thomas and Terrelle Pryor. They have Hue Jackson and an imaginative front office. They just traded for Jamie Collins, who had a good game Thursday. They could get the first pick in the 2017 NFL draft and have 11 choices overall. They have 19 (!) rookies and 10 second-year players on the roster.

But this also is a team for which “next year” is every year.

By most definitions, the Ravens are an average team, even as they sit in first place in the AFC North. Entering Thursday night’s game, they had won three in a row, lost four straight and bounced back from that skid with a win against the Steelers. They were missing All-Pro guard Marshal Yanda, as well as pass rusher Elvis Dumervil, and they lost standout rookie guard Alex Lewis mid-game. Flacco (who has 23 TDs and 21 INTs in his past 19 games now) wasn’t great for most of the game.

But the Browns never had a chance in the second half. And they might not have a chance to win until 2017.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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