Cleveland Browns defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson was looking forward to “a nice steak” on Sunday night. He couldn’t have been too hungry, though, the way he’d been eating up Arizona Cardinals’ offensive linemen on Sunday afternoon.

Over the course of his previous 100 NFL regular-season games, Tomlinson had recorded 11 with one sack and five with one-half sack, including a half-sacker in the 2023 season.

In the Browns’ 27-0 victory over the Cardinals on Sunday, Tomlinson recorded 2.5 sacks of Arizona quarterback Clayton Tune.

“It was a good one,” Tomlinson said. “The other D-tackles and D-ends were rushing crazy and just freed me up with a lot of one-on-ones and some stuff like that and some games we ran, and it worked out for the best.”

Tomlinson’s career game did not surprise Cleveland wide receiver Amari Cooper.

“That’s a Bama guy, man. What do you expect?” Cooper said. “We came out in the same high school class, too, so we got Bama together, so we know each other real well. I’m happy to see him going out there doing his thing. That’s the great thing about this sport. If a guy continuously makes plays, he’s going to get the respect, so I’m happy for him.”

Tomlinson and Cooper were Alabama teammates in the 2012, 2013 and 2014 seasons.

The Browns are the third NFL team for each player. Tomlinson joined the New York Giants as a second-round selection in the 2017 NFL Draft, moved to the Minnesota Vikings as a free agent in 2021 and joined Cleveland as a free agent this year. The Oakland Raiders made Cooper the fourth choice in the 2015 NFL Draft, and he was traded to the Dallas Cowboys during the 2018 season and to the Browns before the 2022 campaign.

Cooper had five receptions for 139 yards and one touchdown in Sunday’s victory. He had a 59-yard reception to set up a field goal, then caught a deflected pass for a touchdown as the Browns took the lead in the second quarter.

Tomlinson said it helps the defense when the other team has to play catch-up.

“That’s what you want,” Tomlinson said. “It’s one of those things where you want the offense to get the lead so you can go have fun. Playing the run is all fun and all, but that’s how you get sore. The sacks are where you start having fun and celebrate more. That’s what you want as a defensive lineman.”

Kyler Murray, Arizona’s quarterback since being the No. 1 pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, returned to full-participant status in practice for the first time this season last week as he recovers from a torn anterior cruciate ligament. But the Cardinals didn’t activate Murray for Sunday’s game, even though they had traded Joshua Dobbs to the Vikings on Tuesday. Dobbs had started every Arizona game in 2023, and that left Tune to make his first NFL start on Sunday.

The Browns sacked the fifth-round draft choice from Houston seven times. That left Arizona with a net of 17 passing yards and a total of 58 yards in the game. That was the fewest yards for the franchise in a game since the Chicago Cardinals had 49 in a 27-3 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Dec. 4, 1955.

“We haven’t played to our standard the last couple of weeks,” Tomlinson said after Cleveland’s first shutout since an 8-0 victory over the Buffalo Bills on Dec. 16, 2007, in a snowstorm, “and I felt like this defense, we came out here today with something to prove. We wanted to get back in the stride of things and the stepping stones of where we want to go.”

Cleveland improved to 5-3, the same record as AFC North rivals Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, with Baltimore leading the division at 7-2. The Browns face the Ravens at noon CST Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

“It’s a division game,” Tomlinson said after Sunday’s victory. “Like back in college with coach (Nick) Saban, you got 24 hours. And then you flush it and then you just got to move on to the next challenge.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.