Cleveland’s relationship with Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson has been strained for years, and that tension was still audible inside Huntington Bank Field on Sunday.

Browns fans who had booed the quarterback through a difficult preseason did not suddenly forget those frustrations when Carolina came to town. Early in the home opener, the mood remained uneasy.

That discomfort sharpened in the fourth quarter after Watson left briefly following a hit, then returned in place of Shedeur Sanders after a single play. Ben Axelrod of Front Office Sports captured the scene in real time:

“Boos in Cleveland as Deshaun Watson replaces Shedeur Sanders after coming off for one play after a hit.” He added that the crowd “is so uncomfortable and has been all game.”

Then the game changed, and so did the sound of the stadium. Cleveland won by three points, its second consecutive victory, and Watson directed a 65-yard scoring drive in the final quarter.

Roughly half an hour after noting the boos, Axelrod posted again: “‘Let’s go Watson!’ chants now ringing throughout Browns’ stadium. Can’t make this up.”

Winning has a way of rewriting the afternoon, even in a market that has spent a long time waiting for this version of Watson to appear.

His box score was far from perfect. Watson completed 16 of 30 passes for 144 yards and two touchdowns and added 11 carries for 45 yards.

The numbers were modest next to his Week 2 showing in Tampa Bay, when he went 24 of 30 for 238 yards and two scores. Still, the combination of two straight wins and a late drive against the Panthers has quieted talk that Cleveland might pull him if the home opener went poorly.

The Browns now prepare for Thursday Night Football against the Pittsburgh Steelers, who also sit at 2-1 after beating Cincinnati.

Watson is in the last season of a fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract. Before this year he had started only 19 games in Cleveland and gone 9-10.

He is now 11-11 as a Brown, surrounded by a younger group of skill players and a defense that has allowed 18.5 points per game over the past two weeks after surrendering 34 in a Week 1 loss to Jacksonville.

None of that erases the earlier boos or the years of injuries, suspension, and uneven play that preceded them. It does explain why a three-word chant could fill a stadium that had spent the first three quarters sounding ready to reject him.

For one Sunday in late September, the Browns won, Watson finished the job, and Cleveland decided, at least for the moment, to cheer.