CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Hue Jackson turned around and doubled back before leaving the Browns locker room after Sunday's 27-10 loss to Baltimore, changing his mind in midstride.

It was 4:49 p.m. when he stopped at the locker of quarterback DeShone Kizer, 42 minutes after loss 14 of this 14-game season had ended, and the two remaining Browns employees most responsible for this so-far winless season were talking.

The conversation was brief inside an almost empty losing locker room. And then they walked in separate directions, Jackson toward the door, Kizer toward the bathroom, another day ending for the coach and the quarterback who have brought out the worst in each other.

The preceding postgame news conferences had gone as usual, Kizer looking broken, Jackson acting bulletproof.

The 21-year-old quarterback seemingly absorbs losses as if they are tearing him apart, while the 52-year-old head coach behaves as if the losses are happening to someone else.

Jackson, now 9-37 as an NFL head coach, said once again Sunday that this season won't define him.

Kizer, now 0-13 as a starting quarterback, once again looked like this season might destroy him.

Eighty-eight percent of the way into his rookie year, Kizer continues to make first-month mistakes. The temperature Sunday told you it was December, the quarterback play did not.

Kizer bristled and offered no response when the first question he fielded Sunday was about throwing an interception into triple coverage in the back of the end zone down 17 in the fourth quarter.

Asked again three questions later, Kizer said he saw running back Isaiah Crowell leaking out of the backfield as he rolled left, and "I was trying to give him an opportunity to get to the ball. The ball came a little short on me and ended up with a good play by the defense."

He blamed the pass, which wasn't as high as he wanted it. Only later did he blame the decision as well.

"No, I probably wouldn't make that throw again," Kizer said. "I would probably throw that ball away and try to play for a fourth down."

That play came immediately after a timeout and sideline counsel with Jackson. Whether Jackson isn't saying it or Kizer isn't hearing it, that moment showed the ways he's still not getting it.

Eight months ago, Kizer came to the Browns as a young big-armed quarterback with accuracy issues. Teaching accuracy is a debate in the NFL, whether it can be learned or not. At the time, Kizer wasn't anyone's guy necessarily, but an attempt at a second-round flyer based on upside.

Browns vice president of personnel Andrew Berry said at the NFL Combine that accuracy could be improved modestly, but "there is a little bit of an innate ability for a quarterback to be accurate or inaccurate that you may never surpass."

After drafting Kizer, then-Executive Vice President of Football Operations Sashi Brown said every quarterback needed to be developed, that none arrived pro-ready.

That development?

"That is Hue's expertise," Brown said then.

So here we are. Brown is fired. Kizer is failing. The Browns are losing.

Blame them all.

Kizer, at least so far, is what he is, assessing most of Sunday's problems as "inaccurate balls and locations. ... I think a lot of the bad throws in today's game were simply based upon mechanics that I have to make sure that I go back and clean up."

Those are the basics. Jackson and quarterbacks coach David Lee haven't done enough, if anything, to shape Kizer or make him the best version of a strong-armed quarterback with big-play ability who throws the ball over the place.

"I think a lot of things he has improved," Jackson said when I asked where he and Lee had helped Kizer.

"My disappointment is the consistency of doing it week in and week out all the time."

That's a big thing. And Jackson didn't offer any specifics about where Kizer is actually better.

Losing with a rookie is fine in my book, as winning a handful of games with a veteran QB doesn't give you much -- just a draft pick that isn't quite as good. You're still losing.

But this has gone as badly as it could have gone. Kizer has thrown 19 interceptions against just nine touchdowns, completing 54 percent of his throws. The hope that came with a Kizer-Jackson pairing has evaporated.

Yet Kizer still talks of what Jackson is doing for him.

"He is one of the best at it," Kizer said in a long answer when asked where Jackson has helped him. "He has done a good job with making sure that I understand the system that he has. It is on me to go out there and play well, but that platform that I have to be a good quarterback is right there in front of me.

"Obviously, he has had a lot of success in the past with young quarterbacks. Why not continue to put trust in him and stay on the path that he has put in front of me, and become a better quarterback?"

That's a heavy dose of faith and optimism in for a supposed mentor. That's a mentor who has benched him in two games and kept him on the sideline in another. That's a mentor who seems to believe a team should be tailored to a coach, but who hasn't done much to tailor a gameplan to a young quarterback.

Kizer has failed, and he knows it.

The Browns will get a quarterback to replace him next year, though obviously Kizer should stay on the roster as the Browns continue to hope something is there.

Jackson has failed Kizer, and he doesn't seem to know it.

Down seven midway through the third quarter, pinned inside their 5-yard line for the fourth time in nine possessions, the Browns called a first-down pass from the 4-yard line.

Jackson had Kizer, who has exhibited almost no internal clock or sense of pressure, drop into the end zone with five receivers in the pattern. No tight ends or backs stayed in to help block, and second-year left tackle Spencer Drango was smoked off the ball, beaten by Za'Darius Smith.

Kizer felt nothing. Smith hit him. Kizer fumbled. Touchdown Baltimore.

It wasn't a ludicrous idea. Sometimes teams pass from the goal line.

But that call, with this team and this young left tackle and this quarterback - was anyone surprised when it turned into points for the Ravens?

It was a coach asking too much of a quarterback unable to deliver. And Jackson should know better.

"We had a couple looks that I thought we could make it happen," Jackson said. "Baltimore is a well-coached defensive football team. You do one thing, they will get it stopped. We made some adjustments. We tried to throw up a couple balls. Hey, they made a play."

Hey, the Browns quarterback didn't.

"Your goal as a quarterback is to keep the ball out of harm's way," Kizer said. "In that situation, without keeping an eye on my back side, I had the ball in harm's way."

And the coach had his quarterback in harm's way.

When it ended and players spilled onto the field, Kizer shook some hands, and then a coach came over to him for a long talk. He seemed encouraging, engaging Kizer, patting him on his chest, looking him in the eye and delivering a message that kept Kizer's attention.

It was a Baltimore coach.