Odom is earning his stripes

After three weeks, the Bengals are one of the league’s most surprising teams and Odom, who leads the NFL in sacks with seven and was named AFC Defensive Player of the Month, is one of their most surprising players. Heading into today’s game against the Cleveland Browns, the Bengals, who posted a 4-11-1 record last season, are already halfway to their 2008 win total.

Last week, they rallied from a 20-9 fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, 23-20, at Paul Brown Stadium - Cincinnati’s first home win over its AFC North rivals since 2001.

If it weren’t for Denver’s “Immaculate Deflection’’ in Week 1, when Brandon Stokley scored an improbable 87-yard touchdown with 11 seconds left on a ball that was deflected by Bengals cornerback Leon Hall, Cincinnati would be sitting at 3-0.

Odom, who had a five-sack game against the Green Bay Packers in Week 2, tying the franchise record, said the rest of the league may be surprised by his performance and that of the Bengals, but he saw it coming.

“I was kind of expecting that this year,’’ said Odom. “I’m at practice every day, and I see our team and talent we have, and I thought we could catch a lot of people by surprise this year.’’

Both Odom, who entered the league in 2004 as a second-round pick of the Tennessee Titans, and the Bengals are having bounce-back years. The 28-year-old pass rusher, who spent the first four seasons of his career in Tennessee, became the richest free agent in Bengals history when he signed a five-year, $29.5 million deal in 2008.

Expectations were high for Odom, who was coming off an eight-sack season with the Titans, but he was slowed by a foot injury he suffered in the first practice of training camp and then hurt his scapula in practice last Nov. 12 and missed four games. Like the Bengals, Odom’s 2008 season was a bust; he had just three sacks.

Odom spent the offseason working hard on his strength and conditioning, and packed on 30 pounds to transform that bust into a boom.

“I didn’t want to go through another season like last year where I got injured and people were saying I was injury-prone,’’ said Odom.

Instead, Odom has gone from injury-prone to a defensive end who demands double-teams.

While Odom has emerged as the leader of the defense, he said one of the big keys to the success is the return of quarterback Carson Palmer, who missed 12 games last season with an elbow injury. Palmer led Cincinnati on a 16-play, 71-yard drive to end the Pittsburgh hex. He hit Andre Caldwell, the brother of former Patriots receiver Reche Caldwell, with a 4-yard touchdown pass with 14 seconds left.

“That’s one of our leaders, and having him back is big,’’ said Odom. “I kind of had the feeling that he was going to drive us down there and make it happen. That’s the type of quarterback he is. He’s a Peyton Manning/Tom Brady-type of quarterback. I think he knew that it could happen, and he made it happen.’’

Some might write off the Bengals’ fast start and Odom’s as flukes, but Odom said he is determined to prove that thinking wrong.

“No sir, I knew I could do it,’’ said Odom. “That’s one thing I do well is pass rush, that’s one of my strong points. I worked on it all year. I want to get to the Pro Bowl as one of my individual goals, and of course the Super Bowl as a team. It was not a fluke. I prepared right this offseason to make it happen.’’

Fishing for solutions

The Dolphins, who went from 1-15 to 11-5 and AFC East champions in Tony Sparano’s first year as coach, are now 0-3. Making matters worse, the team has lost quarterback Chad Pennington for the season with a right shoulder injury, which he suffered last week during a loss to the Chargers.

It is the third time Pennington has injured the shoulder, and it could be career-ending. Pennington tore his rotator cuff in 2004 and 2005 and had surgery. He returned in 2006 with the Jets to win the Associated Press Comeback Player of the Year award. He said this time he injured the interior shoulder capsule.

With Pennington out, the Dolphins will turn to second-year signal caller Chad Henne, a 2008 second-round pick, to try to rescue their fast-fading season. Henne will make his first career start today against the Bills. Miami also traded for Kansas City quarterback Tyler Thigpen to add depth.

“It’s tough to replace a guy like Chad because of his leadership skills, but obviously our goals don’t change and our expectations for our team don’t change,’’ said running back Ronnie Brown. “Obviously, we’re going to attack the game the same way, so now everybody has to pick their level of play up around Chad Henne and make it easier on him. There is no way to replace a leader like that, so everybody has to pitch in and do their part.’’

Brown said the Dolphins feel like they’re better than 0-3.

“You can’t let the 0-3 record define you, no question about it,’’ said Sparano. “But right now, you are what your record says you are. There are no re-dos in this league. There are no coulda, shoulda, woulda. We’re 0-3 for whatever reasons we are 0-3.’’

Packing some extra baggage for this one

Despite repeated protestations that facing his former team is not about revenge, it’s hard to imagine that Brett Favre doesn’t have a little extra motivation for tomorrow night’s game against the Packers at the Metrodome.

Favre, who turns 40 Saturday, is off to a fast start with Minnesota, which is 3-0. He has completed 64.9 percent of his passes and thrown five touchdowns against one interception.

If he needs any extra incentive besides sticking it to Green Bay, Favre can also become the first quarterback to defeat all 32 NFL franchises.

To jog your memory, after Favre backtracked on his tearful retirement as a Packer in 2008, Minnesota was his preferred destination, but fearful of Favre coming back to haunt them, the Packers shipped him to the Jets and included a provision that if the Jets dealt Favre to an NFC North team, they had to surrender three-first round picks to the Packers.

After a disappointing season in New York, a faux retirement, and the usual vacillation, Favre ended up where he wanted to be all along: Minnesota. Favre told Minnesota reporters he wasn’t out for revenge on the Packers and Green Bay general manager Ted Thompson.

“I never played or would play for revenge,’’ he said. “It’s too long of a season. It’s only one, maybe two games. What do you do the rest of the time? This stage of my career, it definitely is not worth it to do that.’’

But when pressed by the Green Bay media, he said, “It’s human nature to feel - I didn’t use the word ‘revenge’ - but to prove that you still could play. To prove someone wrong, or prove a group wrong. So you can call it what you want.’’

I call it Favre being Favre - disingenuous.

Etc.

Material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report; Christopher L. Gasper can be reached at cgasper@globe.com.