CHICAGO, Ill. -- Browns quarterback DeShone Kizer received two huge gifts in the second half of the season in the form of receivers Josh Gordon and Corey Coleman, and he hasn't been able to figure out how to work them.



In a 20-3 loss to the Bears, Kizer connected with Gordon on only two of a team-high eight targets for 19 yards, and with Coleman on only one of six targets for 3 yards.



He and Gordon were so off key together that it was obvious they weren't even singing from the same hymnal.

On one of those miscues with Gordon, Kizer was picked off in the end zone in the second quarter to kill a promising drive. Coleman was also visibly angry after that pick. Kizer was intercepted again in the fourth quarter for a league-high 21 times this season.

The failure to get production out of the two wideouts was a major reason the Browns were unable to beat the now 5-10 Bears at Soldier Field, and that they fell to 0-15. Now, they have just one more chance in Pittsburgh next week to avoid becoming just the second team in NFL history along with the 2008 Lions to go 0-16.



"It's my job to get the ball in one of our best game-changing player's hands, and I wasn't able to do so at the high level that we want to,'' said Kizer, who fell to 0-14 himself. "He's a star player, who we try to get the ball to as much as we can. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do so."



As for both Gordon and Coleman coming up empty, Kizer said, "that's a big part of our offense. When you don't get the ball in their hands, it ends up turning out the way it did today.''



Gordon, who seemed at times not to be giving full effort, walked out of Soldier Field with headphones and refused to talk. It wasn't the first time he declined to talk after a game, which is in violation of league rules.



"I'll see you guys back in Berea,'' he said.



Coach Hue Jackson attributed Gordon's apparent lack of hustle to being sick. He's now caught only 14 of 36 targets for 220 yards, with one TD -- not what anyone expected from the 2013 Pro Bowler.



"I don't feel like there was a problem with his effort,'' said Jackson. "I know he was under the weather. He has the same (bug) I have. He didn't feel very good, but he was out there giving it everything he has and as much as he could. But I know that he wasn't feeling that well at the start of the game."



Kizer refused to use the illness as an excuse, but he and Gordon weren't even on the same holiday let alone the same page.



"He was a little under the weather, but we're professionals,'' he said. "If we're going to step out on the field, it's our job to execute our jobs, and it's my job to make sure that the ball's in our best playmakers' hands whenever we can.''



Coleman added, "I'm sick too. Of this game. It sucks.''



Kizer, who had one of his worst games of the season, struggled to get the ball to mostly anybody but Duke Johnson (7-of-7 targets for 81 yards). He found David Njoku only one out of three chances 13 yards. Kizer completed 18-of-36 attempts for 182 yards, with no touchdowns and two interceptions for a 41.7 rating. It dropped his league-low rating on the season to 58.0.



"Obviously yeah we're better than that,'' said Njoku. "It's embarrassing. But it's a process. We're just trying to get through it.''



As for his good buddy Kizer, he said, "He's a very tough guy, a strong-minded guy as well. He's going to be just fine. We'll get through this together.''

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The disconnect between Kizer and Gordon started right off the bat, with Gordon failing to catch a low-and-away sideline pass on third down to kill the opening drive.



"It was just a little miscommunication on the offense in terms of the route concept that we were running,'' said Kizer.



On the next drive, Bears cornerback Prince Amukamara swiped another sideline ball intended for Gordon, but he was out of bounds. Cornerback Kyle Fuller, who covered Gordon most of the game, broke up a pass to him on the next drive, and then got behind Gordon in the end zone and picked off Kizer on the 12th play of a promising drive.



"It was obviously a double move there,'' he said. "I thought that the corner was going to bite a little harder than he did. I threw the ball up with some anticipation, and the corner made a good play on the ball and brought it down himself."



Gordon dropped another third-down pass and was generally more of a liability than an asset.



But Jackson said he never considered replacing Kizer with Kevin Hogan to get something going.



"I'm going to let him play through it,'' he said. "I said that to you guys a few weeks ago. As long as he's standing and his mind and body is right. I'm going to let him play through it. That's the best thing to do.''



Kizer, who had to play before he was ready this season, bears the burden of this 0-15 team.



"This definitely isn't the type of ball that I want to be playing,'' he said. "The type of ball that I want to play ends with us getting a victory in any sort of fashion - whether I go out and complete every play, or don't complete a ball at all. It's my job to do whatever I can to lead this team to victories, and anything short of that is definitely not what I want to be doing."



He acknowledged that, "it's probably one of the most difficult moments of my life. Right now, we're an 0-15 football team. Obviously, no matter how you put it, it's been a historic year in a negative way, and I'm the leader of this team as the quarterback. Records typically go on quarterbacks, and they go on head coaches, and I'm the quarterback of this team who's going through some tough times.



"It's going to be one of the more important years and one of the more pivotal years in my career in the sense that you have to know what rock bottom looks like before you can climb to the top."



Of course, Kizer might not get that chance to climb back up with the Browns. They clinched the No. 1 overall pick for the second year in a row, and will undoubtedly draft a quarterback with the top pick.



"That's completely out of my hands and just another part of the organization that I have no control over,'' he said. "I look forward to going in and doing whatever we can to end the season with at least one victory."



Kizer knows he has one more chance to put something good on tape for new GM John Dorsey, whose No. 1 priority is to fix the quarterback problem.



"It's a one-game season every time we step out on the field,'' Kizer said. "We had a good outing against Pittsburgh Week 1, and I'm looking forward to going in and preparing as well as I possibly can to finish the season off with a win.''