Cody Kessler still Cleveland Browns QB despite being pulled

Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson still plans to use this lost season to see what kind of quarterback rookie Cody Kessler can be.

After pulling Kessler in the third quarter Thursday night in another lopsided loss, this time 28-7 to the Ravens, Jackson on Friday said he will go back to Kessler when the Browns play the Steelers on Nov. 20 in Cleveland.

Josh McCown, 37, replaced Kessler and turned the ball over three times in five possessions. He threw two interceptions and lost the ball on a strip sack by Terrelle Suggs.

"Cody's still the quarterback," Jackson said. "I took Cody out of the game because I wanted a spark. A young player playing a couple days and all of the sudden it was a little bit different and difficult, and so I wanted to try to the veteran and that's what I did. There's nothing more to it than that. I'm still going to find out more about Cody Kessler as we move forward. That's not going to change."

The Browns are 0-10 for the first time in their history. They never lost 10 straight games in one season until now. Including the final three games of 2015, the losing streak is at 13.

Quarterback is only part of the problem, and not the biggest part. The Browns allowed at least 25 points in each of the 10 losses. The last team to do that was the 1964 Denver Broncos. That Broncos team finished 2-11-1 in the AFL.

Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco threw three touchdown passes in the second half. Cleveland has allowed 25 passing touchdowns and with six games still to play will have to improve dramatically to avoid giving up more than the 34 passing TDs allowed last season.

"Obviously, the turnovers hurt us in the second half, not able to slow them down in the second half. The same second-half issues reared their ugly head as always," Jackson said. "I haven't solved that yet, and that's kind of where we are."

The Browns have nine days to figure things out before playing their next game.