With the game in the balance and the Cleveland Browns suddenly clinging to a 41-38 lead late in the fourth quarter, coach Kevin Stefanski daringly dialed up a reverse to Odell Beckham Jr.

Equally as daring in the huddle, rookie tight end Harrison Bryant gave Beckham instructions, as if OBJ were new to the league.

"It was funny," Beckham said. "[Bryant] is giving me advice and coaching me up, telling me to stay in bounds.

"I said, 'Thanks, rook.'"

Beckham proceeded to remind the rookie -- and for that matter, everyone else -- why he remains in the NFL's pantheon of elite playmakers.

He took the reverse from quarterback Baker Mayfield, then swerved 13 yards behind the line of scrimmage to avoid Dallas Cowboys defensive end Aldon Smith, who had read the play perfectly. That wouldn't matter. Beckham glided past Smith. Then he blasted off.

"I turned the corner and everybody was blocking, and it was weird," he said. "I was about to slide. ... I just turned the jets on."

Cutting off a block from teammate Jarvis Landry, Beckham exploded past the Dallas defense for a 50-yard touchdown, putting the Cowboys away while clinching Cleveland's best start to a season in 29 years.

"Odell was making plays all day," Mayfield said after the 49-38 victory. "That's what he's capable of doing."

And what the Browns (3-1) have been waiting for since trading for Beckham more than a year ago.

Against Dallas, Beckham -- who finished with 81 yards receiving and 73 rushing -- came one score away from matching his entire touchdown total in 2019.

On the opening drive, he hauled in a 37-yard score on a wide receiver reverse pass from Landry. Later in the first half, Beckham beat Cowboys cornerback Daryl Worley on a slant for a 4-yard touchdown catch.

Then came the exclamation point, in which Beckham accelerated into a top speed of 20.6 mph, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, for his third score, making him the first Cleveland player since Leroy Kelly in 1966 to produce a 30-yard receiving touchdown and 50-yard rushing touchdown in the same game.

"He was making plays all over the field," Stefanski said.

That's a big reason why Cleveland could be primed to go from having one of the NFL's most inefficient offenses last season to one of the best this year.

The Browns already are running the ball as effectively as any team in the league. Cleveland has piled up 818 yards on the ground. According to ESPN Stats & Info, that's the fourth-most rushing yards through a team's first four games over the past 30 years. Only the 2005 and 2006 Atlanta Falcons with QB Michael Vick and last year's Baltimore Ravens had more.

The Browns continued to dominate on the ground Sunday, even without leading rusher Nick Chubb, who left the game in the first quarter with a knee injury. Cleveland finished with 307 rushing yards, its highest total since 2009.

Even still, it was Beckham who stole the show and delivered the dagger.

"My man is special," Browns defensive end Myles Garrett said. "We brought him here to make big plays like that. He's trending upwards in terms of productivity. When he's getting his name called, he's coming up big for us."

In the first three games, Beckham's name wasn't called often as the Browns leaned on their powerful rushing attack instead. Stefanski, however, was determined to give Beckham an opportunity against his old rival from his days with the New York Giants, beginning with the Landry pass.

"We've been repping that [trick play] for a while," Stefanski said. "I told the guys we were not going to go through another game without that one getting called."

With the game on the line, Stefanski went back to Beckham, calling the same reverse he produced a 23-yard gain on in the first quarter.

Like Bryant, running back Kareem Hunt went up to Beckham before the snap with his own advice, telling him to simply focus on gaining 5 yards to give them a chance for a first down so they could run down the clock.

"But he wanted the home run," Hunt said, laughing, "not the base hit."

Beckham's entire performance Sunday was a home run. And underscoring just how active he was, Beckham was in a sprint (12 mph or faster) for 778.8 yards during the game, according to Next Gen Stats, his longest distance sprinting in a game since joining the Browns.

Beckham struggled to sprint for long last season as he battled through a sports hernia injury he suffered in training camp. After offseason surgery, Beckham is healthy again. And he appears to be as dangerous as ever.

"All I can say is that it's tatted on my neck, 'I am who I am,'" he said. "I haven't stopped being that."