National Football League

Statement game: Browns romp, earn right to look ahead

Published Nov. 7, 2014 1:26 a.m. ET

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CINCINNATI -- The Cleveland Browns are having a season.

The rest of the NFL -- and, more importantly, the rest of the AFC North Division -- now knows it.

A dominating 24-3 win Thursday night over a limping Cincinnati Bengals team doesn't make the Browns champions of anything but the night, but it does move the Browns to 6-3 and into a tie for first in the only division with four teams with winning records. It's too early to know if it's a breakthrough or if that already came; either way, the Browns played on a new stage under new circumstances Thursday night and looked not just like they belonged, but like they were bullies marking their territory on a familiar block.

This bullying was so bad and so thorough that, with the outcome decided, hundreds of fans were chanting Brian Hoyer's name in the fourth quarter.

Hoyer quarterbacks the Browns.

"I'll never forget that," Hoyer said of the chants.

It's only been one or two or 21 years since a quarterback in Cleveland got this kind of approval rating.

Speaking of ratings, Andy Dalton played quarterback for the Bengals. He posted a 2.0 quarterback rating, threw three interceptions and got booed, lustily and repeatedly. The Bengals, a playoff team the last three years and unbeaten at home since 2012, were never in the game. They were bad, and the Browns made them look worse.

When the Browns had the ball, they lined up and ran it right at the Bengals -- not whenever or however they wanted to, but close. A Craig Robertson interception on the first drive put the Browns at the Bengals 18, and they ran the ball five times until it was 7-0.

"A statement," Browns coach Mike Pettine said.

When the Browns threw, Hoyer was pretty sharp, as usual, completing 15 of 23 passes for 198 yards -- and that was with Jordan Cameron and Andrew Hawkins sidelined by injury. The Browns rushed for 170 yards; they'd run for 158 yards total over their last three games.

When the Browns can run the ball, they're good.

Legitimately good. Six wins by November 6 for a team that hasn't won this many since 2007 has not been an accident.

"I don't get into looking back," Pettine said. "We just go week to week. We know the history is out there, but we can't let that affect us one way or the other.

"We're playing well. The players have bought in...and that shows up."

Three different runners scored touchdowns Thursday with Terrance West starting and going for 94 yards. Three different players had interceptions. Desmond Bryant had both sacks, but the Browns took turns teeing off on Dalton, who finished 10-of-33 for 86 yards before mercifully getting removed from the game.

The Browns have had some bad quarterback play through the years -- perhaps you've heard -- but what they did to Dalton in this game ranks up there with anything that's been done to any Browns quarterback by anyone.

After the game, Hoyer sat on the NFL Network set while hundreds of fans continued to chant his name.

Dalton got $12 million to sign a six-year contract that pays him anywhere between $9-17 million a season. Hoyer is under contract through only this season, a season that could go not just through December but into the postseason. This thing -- these things, really -- could go a hundred different ways.

The Browns have earned the right to dream.

If it wasn't for another disaster from the punt return team, the Browns would have posted a shutout. Over the first month of the season the Browns defense was charitable; on this night, it was dominant. Perfect games are for a sport that's finished before November, but the Browns faced the franchise's biggest game in years and had the better quarterback, the better game plan, the better cornerbacks, the better pass rush, the better run game, the better everything.

Everything.

"Obviously a huge win," Pettine said. "As complete a game as we've played."

Said Bengals coach Marvin Lewis: "We got our tails beat."

It was the Browns first divisional road win since 2008.

The same old Browns were left to the side of the highway somewhere between Cleveland and Cincinnati, somewhere between a hard-fought home loss to the Baltimore Ravens in late September and this, the statement game that's been years in the making.

Early Friday morning, the Browns flew home as playoff contenders -- with plenty of this really interesting season still ahead.

Follow on Twitter FSOhioZJackson

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