Browns Star Jared Verse Speaks Out After Dominant Win Over Steelers

After a "Thursday Night Football" victory over the division rival Pittsburgh Steelers , the Cleveland Browns are 3-1 and sitting, at least for now, in first place in the AFC North. It's an unfamiliar situation. The Browns haven't been 3-1 since 2021, and the last two years, they didn't get their third win of the season until November.

After the game, defensive end Jared Verse declared it a new day in Cleveland.

"This ain't the old Browns," Verse said during his media availability. "We've got new swag. We're a lot more aggressive, a lot more, you know, getting after it. This is something different here. We're going to make this whole city rock."

The Browns' arrival at 3-1 comes as a significant surprise -- especially given the way the season started, with a pitiful performance in a blowout loss against the  Jacksonville Jaguars,  during which they looked like they were headed for another season where they posted one of the worst records in the  NFL .

"That was a complete, maybe disaster is a little bit strong, but that's a tough opening game in every phase, other than maybe kickoff return, maybe other than that," head coach Todd Monken said of the season opener. "But the guys trusted the process. We got stung a little bit, and our guys responded to that. And, man, that locker room is fun, right there celebrating those guys. Big, big, big divisional win."

Monken did, however, caution against taking things too far after Cleveland's three straight victories.

"It's still only three [wins]," Monken said. "And there's a lot of things we can continue to get better at, and we will, because our guys are humble and they're still hungry. And it's really cool, because it means the next one continues to matter. That's all you want to be. You just want to be in a position where the games matter, right? That's what we want to be in, that's what our fans want to be in, and that's what we're going to fight for every day."

It's worth noting that the Browns' trio of victories came by a combined 10 points, and each required a game-winning drive in the final five minutes. They still have a negative point differential on the season, and Thursday night's win was actually the first time they out-gained their opponent this season (and they only did so by 11 yards). They are the only team in NFL history to have fewer touchdowns, fewer made field goals, fewer rushing yards, fewer net passing yards, more turnovers and more penalties than their opponents through four games and still have a winning record, according to Stats Perform . This hasn't exactly been a dominant stretch, even if it's an encouraging one.

The Browns' upcoming schedule gets interesting. They have four of their next five games on the road, and the one home game comes against the division rival Baltimore Ravens . They take a trip to New York to play the Jets next week, followed by that Ravens game, then play three straight road games against the Titans , Steelers and Saints before hosting the Texans ahead of their Week 11 bye.

If they can even go 2-4 during that span and head into the stretch run at 5-5, that would be really impressive given the expectations we had for the Browns coming into the season. If they go 3-3 or better, they'll look like one of the biggest surprises of the year, and Verse will look correct in his assertion that this ain't the old Browns.

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_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/browns-jared-verse-bold-statement-after-win-over-steelers/)._