Atlanta, Georgia (AP)--

Michael Vick trots in the endzone after a long run.

When you have a run oriented team going up against an opponent whose Achilles heel happens to be its rush defense, you tend to get results similar to those which were witnessed in Atlanta’s 33-18 blowout of the New York Giants.
The Falcons spent most of the game running all over the Giants hopeless defense, on their way to rushing for a unheard off 229 rushing. Most of the yards were racked up from QB Michael Vick and RB Warrick Dunn, a tandem that is steadily becoming one of the most feared in the NFL, rushing for 109 and 110 yards respectively. When the Giants went to blocking the ends to contain Vick, Dunn would simply take the draw for a big run. When the Giants learnt this and started to concentrate on Dunn, Vick would simply slip to the outside for a big gain of his own. The end result: an easy victory.
The Falcons got off to a quick start in their first possession as a 25 yard run by Dunn setup a 45 yarder from Michael Koenen, who connected for a career best four field goals on the afternoon. The high vibes were short lived as on the Falcons first defensive play following the field goal, off-season acquisition S Chris Crocker suffered a broken wrist on a missed tackle. Crocker was quickly taken to the locker room, being replaced by Omare Lowe, who played solid as Crocker replacement, picking up four tackles and a game sealing interception. Crocker status is day-to-day but he has said he expects not to just play next week, but start.
Looking to take advantage of the loss in the secondary, Eli Manning and Giants offense looked to test the deep ball, which seemed to work as the G-men moved the ball into Falcon territory late in the first quarter. However, when Manning looked for WR Plaxico Burress on a screen play, CB DeAngelo Hall, who read the play superbly, was right there waiting to intercept the pass, ending the first quarter for the Falcons on a good note.
With the good field position after Hall’s second pick of the season, the Falcons quickly added to their lead in the second quarter as Koenen connected again, this time from 37 yards.
Manning didn’t seemed to be too affected from the miscue on their previous possession, as he ate up a chunk off the second quarter clock in a 15 play drive which ended with a 21 yard field goal from former Falcon Jay Feely. Despite the field goal, it was still a morale victory for the Falcons, as they only gave up a field goal after New York was given 5 tries to score from less than 5 yard out.

Patrick Kerney sacks Eli Manning during the second quarter.

Before the halftime buzzer sounded the Falcons would add to their lead in an emphatic style as Vick completed a short out pattern pass to WR Roddy White. White caught the pass, and made a clever juke to shake himself free of CB R.W. McQuarters, White turned upfield and outran the everyone to the endzone for the touchdown score. The Falcons now led comfortably 13-3, with all the momentum at halftime. The running game was in full swing throughout the first half as the Falcons outrushed the Giants 118 yards to 34, and Warrick Dunn was the main reason for that stat racking up 88 yards on only 9 first half carriers.
Atlanta picked up were they left off in the third quarter, as after forcing the Giants into a three and out, Vick led his team to another touchdown score. After a play action fake to Dunn, Vick rolled out on the bootleg where he outran DE Osi Umenyiora for a 53 yard score. The run was Vick’s longest of the season, and gave the Falcons a comfortable cushion at 20-3.
Soon after, the Falcons once again added to their lead. This time Vick rolled out again before throwing to TE Alge Crumpler, who broke a tackle and like all the other Falcon scores, jogged effortlessly into the endzone. The rout was officially on after three quarters of play as the Falcons were blowing out the lost Giants 27-10. The Giants were able to put 7 points on the board in the third as Manning hooked up with TE Jeremy Shockey for 66 yard touchdown after troubled rookie Jimmy Williams blew another assignment in his new role as nickelback.
With the game all but over in the forth quarter, the Falcons continued to run the ball, to kill time off the clock, and prevent a Manning comeback. Atlanta consistently ran for 5 plus yards on every run in the forth quarter on their way to two long drive in the final quarter, which were capped off with Koenen third and forth field goals of the day. In his first ever role as the kicker on a NFL team Koenen is off to a great start, going for a perfect 11/11.

Roddy White waits for his teammates after his 75 yard catch and run score.

Once again, Manning was able to get a constellation touchdown score before the game came to an end as this he hooked up with Amani Toomer for a 47 yard touchdown score, which was followed up by a successful two point conversion courtesy of Brandon Jacobs, who was filling in for Tiki Barber, who was lost in the preseason due to injury.
In the final minutes of the contest, Head Coach Jim Mora decided to bring in the reserves, as QB Matt Schaub and rookie RB Jerious Norwood filled in great in the closing stages, killing the clock and propelling the Falcons to the win. Lowe’s first career interception was the exclamation mark for the Falcons.
With his 314 yards of total offense (202 passing, 109 rushing) and 3 total TD’s (2 pass, 1 run) Michael Vick was named the NFL’s offensive player of the week. After his disappointing performance in week 1, where he showed no improvements from a dreadful 2005 campaign, Vick has taken a complete turn as he has become the quarterback which the Falcons had hoped for, being mentioned in early MVP talks. Vick will have to continue his MVP play, as will the rest of the Falcons squad as they host the defending champion Pittsburgh Steelers next week. The Steelers have not missed a beat since being crowned 05 champs, as they have started the season 4-1. This game will be a true test for the Falcons, who have not faced a legit playoff contending team since their week 1 debacle against the Panthers.

Game Boxscore.