Atlanta, Georgia (AP)--

Though he had a bad day, Michael Vick still put points on the board for Atlanta.

Charlie Frye may never want to step foot in Atlanta again after what he went through against the Falcons.
Frye was sacked 12 times on Sunday as the Falcons defense dominated the Cleveland Browns on their way to a 24-10 victory. The 12 sacks recorded by the Falcons defense tied an NFL record for most team sacks in a game, a total which has been reached 4 times, the last time coming in 1985, where the Dallas Cowboys set the record against the Houston Oilers. Patrick Kerney was the headline man sacking Frye 4 times on the day. Ed Hartwell, Michael Boley, and John Abraham each had two sacks, while Jason Webster and Keith Brooking added to the total with a sack each.
The dominating play by the Falcons defense came when it was most needed, as the Falcons potent offense played out of sync throughout. QB Michael Vick turned out to have his worst performance of the 2006 season to date, passing for only 55 yards, on 9 for 26 passing, and rushing for –10 yards. Vick however still showed his big play ability passing for 2 touchdowns scores and running for another all of which came off Browns turnovers. If it wasn’t for the strong play of the defense today, it could very well have ended up in a loss for the Falcons, as Vick and Co. were unable to get any real momentum going when they had possession.
Right from the start, the Falcons brought pressure to the Browns, as on the first two offensive plays for the Browns, Frye was sacked firstly by John Abraham and then by Michael Boley. Boley sacked would cause a turnover as he forced the football loose on the hit, and ended up recovering the fumble, giving the Falcons great field position to begin the game.
Despite the great field position, Vick and the Falcons offense would be unable to take advantage as a run for a loss, and two incompletions, would end the Falcons first possession of the afternoon, with a 38 yard field goal courtesy of Michael Koenen.
After a solid start the Falcons would soon go through a period of struggle, as they defense would be caught sleeping, as Frye would hookup with second year WR Braylon Edwards for a 53 yard score, putting the Browns on top 7-3 late in first quarter. It was after this point where the Falcons defense started to play some of the best football which they have played all year long, as the usual weak defense would play stingy, and allow only 3 points for the rest of the contest.

Keith Brooking takes down Rueben Droughns during the second quarter.

The Falcons would regain the lead for good early in the second quarter as Vick found a wide open TE Alge Crumpler for the touchdown. Crumpler would get wide open after the play action by Vick, which caught the Browns cheating for the run, after RB Warrick Dunn, had run of a string off big gains against the sub par Browns defense. Vick would be unable to reproduce results like this for the rest of the contest, as he would constantly be unable to find an open receiver, causing him to roll out, where he was ineffective, something which came as a surprise, after Vick had found most success in bootlegs and roll outs in the Falcons first 8 games this season.
Atlanta’s defense would make another big play following the Falcons touchdown. After two straight sacks by Patrick Kerney and Ed Hartwell, the Browns would find themselves backed up inside their own 5 yard line on third down. Deciding to play it safe Browns coach Romeo Crennel went on a toss play to Lee Suggs, however the decision would backfire, as Suggs did well to avoid the safety but when he was met at the sideline by Omari Lowe, the football would come free, and Lawyer Milloy would pick it up for Atlanta giving them a great chance to add to their lead and open up the game.
With only 5 yards to go for a score, Michael Vick would do what he does best, and outrun the slower linebacker to the pylon for the touchdown.
As halftime arrived the Falcons led 17-7, but with no offense and 10 points coming of Browns fumbles and riding on the back of 6 sacks, the Falcons knew that their offense wasn’t to thank for the first half performance. Both teams struggled mightily on offense in the first half as both passing games were ineffective as usual sure handed receiver found themselves dropping passes.
The Browns would get a sudden spark on their first possession after halftime. RB Reuben Droughns would burst up the middle breaking a tackle by former Brown Chris Crocker. 69 yards later, Droughns would be caught by speedy DeAngelo Hall inside the 10 yard line, saving the touchdown. The hustle by Hall would prove worthy as the Falcons would produce a successful goal line stand stopping Droughns and Suggs on runs up the middle, causing the Browns to settle for a Phil Dawson 19 yarder to cut the score to 17-10.

Michael Jenkins catches the pass for a big gain, but the catch would be wiped out on a Falcons penatly.

Looking to turn things around after a insignificant first half, Vick came out passing but he would be unsuccessful as he continued to built on his bad day, getting picked off by safety Sean Jones on a pass intended to Michael Jenkins. The Falcons defense once again would stand strong and make the Vick error go unnoticed, as they force a Cleveland punt, after knocking the Browns out of field goal range courtesy of a Keith Brooking sack.
The rest of the third quarter would be played out to be an offensive struggle as both teams kept punting back and forth to each other. When it was all done a total of 18 footballs would go soaring towards the Georgia Dome roof on punts.
the forth quarter would be played similar to that of the third quarter, as the Falcons defense would continue to maintain their lead while the offense would continue to play with no real rhythm.
It looked as if Vick had connected for his second score of the game on a bomb to Roddy White, but after White caught the pass and began his celebration it was quickly halted from the yellow flags which began to fill the Falcons endzone. White was penalized for offensive interference wiping out the score, and forcing another Michael Koenen punt.
The Falcons defense started to add insult to injury to Cleveland as just when Frye looked like he was starting to find receivers who would hang onto the football, Milloy, Crocker, and a slew of Falcons linebacker would pummel the Browns receiver forcing incompletion and causing turnovers on downs late in the game.
Before the end of the game the Falcons would score another touchdown off a Browns turnover as this time Vick did get White his touchdown catch on a 3 yard bootleg pass to White who made an acrobatic catch in the endzone.
Before the final whistle blew history would be made as Kerney would record his forth sack of the day, which would be the Falcons 12th as a team, tying the record and making all the Falcons faithful forget about the sour note left by the poor offensive showing by Vick.
On a day when the Falcons would have been shut out and blown out on home if it wasn’t for the defensive effort, Atlanta found themselves lucky that they were playing a team as mediocre as the Brown. With all 24 points coming off Browns turnovers, Atlanta knew it would have been a very different story if the defense didn’t play the way they did and if Warrick Dunn didn’t provide his 115 yards rushing. Next weeks matchup at the Baltimore Ravens will be a very big game, as Vick will return to the site where he broke his leg in 2003. Jim Mora has already said that the offense will have to improve vastly before next week before they go up against the Raven defense.

Game Boxscore.