Browns Beat Chargers to Avoid 0-16 Season: Score, Highlights and Top Reaction

For the first time in more than a year, the Cleveland Browns have won a regular-season football game.

Josh Lambo missed a potential game-tying field goal as time expired, helping the previously 0-14 Browns earn a 20-17 victory over the San Diego Chargers.  

The Browns' Twitter account needed only one letter to celebrate the win:

"

W. pic.twitter.com/KGgsHe7LBB

— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) December 24, 2016"

The 2008 Detroit Lions will now remain the only team in NFL history to finish 0-16.

Bleacher Report's Cian Fahey gave his thoughts on the result:

"

Hue Jackson deserves this. So happy for him.

— Cian Fahey (@Cianaf) December 24, 2016"

While Cleveland allowed nine total sacks, Robert Griffin III did his job at quarterback with 164 passing yards and no turnovers. Isaiah Crowell added two touchdowns on the ground to go with 54 rushing yards.

Additionally, the defense did its part to limit San Diego on the ground while holding the offense to just 17 points. Philip Rivers totaled 322 passing yards and two touchdowns, but he also had an interception and simply couldn't do enough to help his team win.

Like it has through most of the season, Cleveland fell behind early after Antonio Gates came through with an opening touchdown. While the Browns answered, they went down 10-7 at the end of the first quarter.

However, the mood changed quickly when Crowell notched his second score of the game to give Cleveland a 14-10 lead after the extra point:

Per SNF on NBC, this broke a streak of 20 quarters without a lead for the Browns. A Cody Parkey field goal added to the lead as Cleveland held a 17-10 advantage at halftime.

Once again, a shocking statistic was involved in this score, via NFL Research:

The defense did its job to stay in front, holding Rivers and Co. in check for most of the second half, although closing things out was far from easy.

San Diego wideout Tyrell Williams scored a touchdown with just over six minutes left to cut the score to 20-17. The Chargers then had a chance to tie the game late, but the Browns blocked a short field-goal attempt:

By this point, seemingly everyone was rooting for the Browns to get their first victory of the year, including Bleacher Report's Mike Freeman and ESPN.com's Mina Kimes:

San Diego had one more chance to earn the win, but Lambo's attempt to tie the game from 45 yards out missed right as time expired, handing Cleveland the win.

The Browns moved to 1-14 on the season, with one more game remaining against the Pittsburgh Steelers. While they might have hurt their chances of earning the first overall draft pick to the one-win San Francisco 49ers, the players are likely happy to get that weight off their shoulders.

Meanwhile, San Diego fell to 5-10, with nine of the losses decided by a single score (including possible two-point conversion attempts). The Chargers will end their season with a home game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Postgame Reaction

While this was just one win in a lost season, the Browns were not taking the victory lightly.

"This is what happens when you stick to it, you find a way to win a game," head coach Hue Jackson said after the game, per Patrick Maks of the team's official site.

"It feels good to get a win for Hue and this city," cornerback Jamar Taylor said of his coach, per the team's official Twitter account.

Meanwhile, All-Pro tackle Joe Thomas was even more excited about the win.

"You don't want to say it was our Super Bowl but it really was," Thomas said, per Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com.

On the other side, Rivers was upset about yet another narrow loss.

"We found another way to lose a close game," he said, per Ricky Henne of the Chargers' team site. "We knew we were playing an NFL team and they got the better of us."

Although this was just a regular-season matchup, the outcome is one players on both sides won't soon forget.

Follow Rob Goldberg on Twitter.