Now that the game was over — now that the Cleveland Browns had stunned the Cincinnati Bengals, 34-24 — Josh Cribbs felt comfortable enough to make an admission:

“I kind of felt we were gonna win this one right from the start,” the Browns’ unrivalled return man said as he stood in his team’s jubilant dressing room. “All week, I just had the feeling this was going to be our day — that we were finally onto something. Just so many things coming together at once.”

There’s no way Cribbs could have said that before Sunday’s game.

The Browns were riding an 0-11 steak — six losses to end last season and then five more to start this year — and no team in franchise history had ever lost more games in a row. Even worse, Cleveland had lost 12 straight AFC North games and had been beaten by Cincinnati seven of the last eight times the teams had played.

“We had been close in a lot of those games,” said Browns cornerback Joe Haden. “We were just one or two plays away in some of those games and we needed something to get us over the hump.”

In ways on the field and off — just as Cribbs said, it “all came together” Sunday at Cleveland Browns Stadium

Everyone in the victors’ quarters agreed one of the biggest hump busters was the return of Haden, who had been suspended by the league for four games after testing positive for Adderall.

“The intensity he brings, the all-out effort, it rubs off on everybody,” said linebacker D’Qwell Jackson. “Today, he was all over the place. Having him on the field is definitely a security blanket for all of us.”

Haden was put in charge of Bengals receiving ace A.J. Green and although he gave up five inches to him, the Browns corner made several big plays. While Green did score two touchdowns — and those weren’t the sole responsibility of Haden — the Browns corner did pick off one Andy Dalton pass, break up three other passes and finish with seven tackles, second best of the team.

Then there was Cribbs, the most dynamic Browns player and an annual nemesis of the Bengals. He returned one Cincinnati punt 60 yards to set up a field goal and returned two kickoffs for 63 more yards.

Rookie quarterback Brandon Weeden had his best game as a pro, throwing for 231 yards and two touchdowns against one interception. And there was back-up tailback Montario Hardesty — pressed into duty when Trent Richardson was sidelined with an abdominal injury.

After the preseason, the knock on Hardesty was that he couldn’t hang onto the football. But he was flawless Sunday in 15 carries for 56 yards and his one score came on a vaulting, spinning leap — similar to something you see from an Olympic high diver — as he flew over the line and barrel-rolled across the goal line.

The Browns picked off Dalton three times, including once for a 19-yard return for a score by 11-year vet Sheldon Brown, who broke into the NFL when many of his teammates were still in grammar school.

After the game, Brown and Haden were two of the first people approached in the dressing room by Jimmy Haslam, the billionaire truck stop magnate from Tennessee, who officially takes over team ownership from Randy Lerner on Tuesday.

“He’s a fan — he knows all of us by name — and he wanted us to know how good he felt for us today,” said Haden, who played for Urban Meyer at Florida. “But he also messed with me about my Gator tattoo. I told him, ‘I’ll get a Tennessee one if you want me to.’ ”

For the first time since last Nov. 20 of last year — when Cleveland edged Jacksonville, 14-10 — the Browns’ dressing room was filled with the fun and frivolity that comes with victory.

“We finally got our stadium back today,” said Hardesty. “You don’t know how good that feels.”

No one knows the flip side better than Brown

“Yeah, I know what losing feels like,” he dead-panned. “I started my college career (at South Carolina) with one win as a freshman and then we lost 21 straight. That’s how I started college, 1-21. Now the last two years we turned it around there, played in two Outback Bowls and beat Ohio State both times.

“But whenever you’re losing, there are times you can’t sleep at night. You think of plays you made that hurt the team. …In our streak here, there were several games that came down to one or two plays.”

The Browns lost their 11 games by an average of just 7.3 points a game.

“When you finally win, it’s terrific,” embattled Browns coach Pat Shurmur said afterward as emotion started to well up in his voice. “It’s not so much for me, but for my family, for the players. Really for anybody who goes to work Monday morning. Mondays feel so much better when you win a game.”

His voice broke and that moment was underscored later in the dressing room by Jackson: “Pat needed this the most. He’s here early every day. He grinds through everything and he’s taken a lot of shots (in the press). He has to deal with everything.”

And Weeden, too, said Brown: “A win like this really helps a young quarterback. It gives him confidence that he CAN win.”

Brown said it’s up to he and Cribbs and some of the older guys to temper the many youngsters on the Browns team, though: “In this league you can go from hero to zero in one game. It happens all the time… The important thing now is next Sunday.”

He said they’ll stress that beginning today.

“But for right now, look around at all the guys smiling in here,” he said. “This has been as long time coming. Right now, for what they did today, they should feel good about themselves.”

Across the way, 295-pound rookie defensive lineman Billy Winn — who had picked up a Dalton fumble at game’s end and rumbled down the field 35 yards before he was caught from behind — was feeling just that.

“That ball was just a gift laying there on the ground for me,” he said with a grin. “When I picked it up, I had tunnel vision… I thought, ‘Yeah ,maybe I can make the end zone.’ I got caught from behind, but that’s okay . I got what I wanted today. We all did.

“We got our groove back.”