Browns hope to stun Patriots

Teams like the Patriots look at .500 as an annoyance.

<p class="MsoNormal">Teams like Cleveland look at 2-2 as landmark progress.

<p class="MsoNormal">Beating Baltimore, 27-13, Sunday emboldened the 2-2 Browns for a matchup against perhaps the best Patriots team yet.

<p class="MsoNormal">Safety Sean Jones said turning the swagger factor against the Ravens did something for the collective psyche.

<p class="MsoNormal">"We're gonna come out there and play our ball," Jones said. "You see what happened.

<p class="MsoNormal">"When we play our kind of ball -- fast, physical and aggressive -- and the offense gets some points on the board, we're gonna win the majority of the games."

<p class="MsoNormal">Linebacker Andra Davis loves that the Browns are 2-1 in the AFC North after going 0-6 last year. He loves the foothold established by beating the Ravens.

<p class="MsoNormal">"We're 2-1 in the division," Davis said. "Baltimore's 0-2. By us beating them, we bury them a little bit.

<p class="MsoNormal">"They're in the hole that we were in last year."

<p class="MsoNormal">The Browns went 0-3 last September, 0-2 in the division.

<p class="MsoNormal">Cleveland can improve to 3-2 by stunning the Patriots. The only time the Browns won three of their first five games in an expansion-era season was 2001. In their playoff year of 2002, they were 2-3.

<p class="MsoNormal">"Now we're gonna play one of the best teams in the league," Davis said.

<p class="MsoNormal">"It's gonna be a big challenge for us.

<p class="MsoNormal">A 3-2 record isn't always a good thing. The Browns started the 1995 season at 3-2 and finished it at 5-11 before packing the vans for Baltimore.

<p class="MsoNormal">"It doesn't mean a thing if we don't build on it," ex-Patriot Willie McGinest said.

<p class="MsoNormal">Fact is, the Browns have been 2-2 or 3-1 in five of the eight previous expansion-era seasons. Only one became a winning year.

<p class="MsoNormal">Yet, Wimbley cited another factor in the latest surge of optimism: "We're scoring some points."

<p class="MsoNormal">They have scored 111 points, six more than Brett Favre's unbeaten Packers.

<p class="MsoNormal">The last time they were scoring at this rate, they reached the playoffs -- they had 113 points through four games in 2002.

<p class="MsoNormal">Davis is one of the few Browns to have been with the team since the playoff year. Losing has been the rule since then.

<p class="MsoNormal">Two Sundays ago at Oakland, he was emotionally drained by another defeat.

<p class="MsoNormal">"You get tired of losing," Davis said. "What was so frustrating was I know we're a better team than the Raiders are. We have way more talent than the Oakland Raiders.

<p class="MsoNormal">"To take it to the next level, we can't play like that against those type of teams. We used to be that type of team."

<p class="MsoNormal">Is Sunday's romp past the Ravens a sign this is a new kind of Browns team?

<p class="MsoNormal">What better place than New England to find a real answer.

<p class="MsoNormal">Reach Repository sports writer Steve Doerschuk at (330) 580-8347 or e-mail steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com