When you looked at the 49ers’ schedule back in August, you probably circled this Week 13 trip to Cleveland as an easy road win. The Browns stink. They always stink. It’s part of the NFL’s natural order, like the sun rising or Tom Brady botching the broadcast call on a big third down.

At 3-8, they stink again this year.

But if you’re Kyle Shanahan, you better not dare overlook this game. Because this matchup is way more interesting than it has any right to be, and it carries the risk of a season-defining embarrassment for San Francisco.

Consider this the ultimate clash of extremes — the kind of stark, cynical contrast that only the professional game can deliver:

On one side, you have a Browns defense that is championship-caliber, a unit of highly trained assassins that is as good as any

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