Are improved Browns on par with Pats?

They’ll find out today in Foxborough.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Just when the Cleveland Browns finally seem on the right path, there’s big trouble ahead.

Waiting to stop them are the New England Patriots, an unbeaten powerhouse with all four wins by at least 20 points, a quarterback at the top of his game and a stingy defense getting back one of its leaders.

So a victory over the heavily favored Patriots today would show just how far the Browns have come after going 10-22 in their first two seasons under coach Romeo Crennel.

“It would be a great feeling,” defensive lineman Orpheus Roye said.

It also would be a huge surprise.

Sure, Cleveland’s retooled offense scored 51 points against Cincinnati.

But the Patriots have allowed a total of 48.

And the Browns gave up 45 to the Bengals, a team the Patriots allowed one touchdown in a 34-13 win last Monday night.

“The Patriots are playing the best ball in all of football right now,” Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards said, “but we can play with them.”

Cleveland (2-2) is coming off a 27-13 win over Baltimore and is led on offense by two new starters, quarterback Derek Anderson and running back Jamal Lewis, the NFL’s seventh-leading rusher.

But the Patriots have allowed the fewest yards in the league, and safety Rodney Harrison is back after a four-game suspension for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing substances, reportedly by using human growth hormone.

“It seemed like a long four weeks,” he said. “I’m ready to go. It’s just a matter of getting out there and really getting that experience again.”

Like just about everyone else, Harrison has been impressed by the offense with Tom Brady and his new target, Randy Moss. Brady is the NFL’s top-rated quarterback with 13 touchdown passes and two interceptions. Moss leads the league with seven total touchdowns and 505 yards receiving.

“Randy has always posed a problem when he has been in the right situation, and it looks like he’s in the right situation,” said Crennel, who became Cleveland’s coach after four years as New England’s defensive coordinator. “He’s just making unbelievable plays.”

The Browns’ defense is very similar to the one Crennel ran with the Patriots.

“There are a few different twists to it,” Brady said. “Any time you can rush the passer the way they do, it creates problems offensively.”

The Patriots are the first team since 1920 to win each of its four games by at least 20 points. They’ve scored in every quarter and have a 25-point average margin of victory.

Through it all, coach Bill Belichick keeps dwelling on the negative.

So linebacker Adalius Thomas decided to have some fun and have gray T-shirts printed for his teammates that said in dark blue capital letters on the front “I EAT IT” and on the back “HUMBLE PIE.”

Belichick gives them plenty of that. but laughed when he saw the shirts at Wednesday’s team meeting.

“You think you’re doing well? Bill serves it up real nice,” cornerback Ellis Hobbs said. “That’s not his job to sit there and pat us on the back all the time, because we begin to create this false image of ourselves and get the big heads and then you look up, we’re losing. So his main goal is to always keep us humble.”

The Browns certainly have no reason for overconfidence. They’ve had just one winning season in the eight since Cleveland got a new franchise, and finished last season with four straight losses. Since then, Anderson claimed the quarterback job, Lewis was signed as a free agent from Baltimore, and Edwards and Kellen Winslow have combined for 38 catches; each is in the top seven in yards receiving.

“We are connecting with the receivers and we are getting the ball downfield,” Lewis said. “That takes a lot of pressure off of [me] and opens up the box with teams that want to put eight or nine men in the box sometimes.”

The Browns even had a chance to be 3-1, but lost 26-24 to Oakland in their third game when Phil Dawson’s last-second 40-yard field goal attempt was blocked.

They took charge early the next week, leading Baltimore 24-6 at halftime.

“The Cleveland offense is very explosive,” said Thomas, who spent the past six seasons as part of a strong Baltimore defense. “Everybody’s going to go, ‘Cleveland, whatever.’ But Cleveland’s putting up points. They have the confidence. They’re playing with a swagger about themselves.”

That may work for a team that hasn’t had much success and needs to build confidence. But the Patriots don’t need that. They may be even better than their teams that won three of the last six Super Bowls, so they wear shirts that remind them — if Belichick doesn’t do it enough — that humility is a big part of their playbook.

“Just add some ice cream on the side,” defensive lineman Jarvis Green said. “Some vanilla. Keeping it simple.”