It’s funny how conventional wisdom in sports gets influenced by the media hype machine. Networks like ESPN jump on storylines, and conventional wisdom builds around their narratives.

In recent years, the Browns got a ton of buzz when Baker Mayfield was driving all of the attention. This season, in the aftermath of last season’s drama with Deshaun Watson, the Browns were flying under the radar despite loading up the roster in the offseason.

Meanwhile, if you were watching the betting lines leading up to this game, you’ve would have noticed that the sharps were all over the Cleveland Browns for this game. There were some good reasons behind this dynamic. The Browns had some serious issues on defense last season despite some very talented players. The Browns front office made a concerted effort in the offseason to fix the situation. Andrew Berry started this transformation by replacing defensive coordinator Joe Woods with Jim Schwartz, which was a massive upgrade. He then completely rebuilt the defensive line in an attempt to fix two glaring problems – the lack of defensive tackles who could stop the run, plus adding pass rushers to compliment Myles Garrett. Notable additions included free agents Ogbo Okoronkwo, Dalvin Tomlinson, Za’Darius Smith and Shelby Harris. On paper, this defense looked formidable, but we also had to see it on the field.

Meanwhile, Joe Borrow was getting over a calf injury that had prevented him from practicing most of the preseason.

Hence, the sharps were jumping on this game.

Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals saw the new and improved Browns defense on Sunday. The defense simply dominated the Bengals and Burrow from the first snap. The defensive line harassed Burrow the entire game while the secondary clamped down on the Bengals receivers, including Ja’Marr Chase who shot his mouth off before the game about the Browns and the city of Cleveland.

The Browns handily won the game, 24-3, and staked their claim as a team to be reckoned with this season.