Week 10 Game Recap: Cleveland Browns 17, Atlanta Falcons 13

What you need to know

Cleveland Browns

Opening up a fourteen point lead early, Charlie Frye completed 16 of 22 passes for 165 yards and a touchdown. The Browns struggled on third downs in this game, and did not sustain many long drives, limiting the rhythm which Frye could establish with any receiver. Kellen Winslow tied for the team lead in targets and caught five passes for 90 yards. With tight ends active in the Browns’ offense, Steve Heiden caught four balls for 24 yards. Wide receiver Braylon Edwards caught a nineteen yard touchdown strike on an otherwise quiet afternoon where he netted three catches for 31 yards. With two catches, Joe Jurevicius gained just four yards starting opposite Edwards. Dennis Northcutt added a six yard reception and Josh Cribbs caught one pass for ten yards. Reuben Droughns was not targeted out of the backfield in this game.

Though they remained focused to a balanced attack, the Browns struggled in the rushing game. On 21 carries, Reuben Droughns gained just 54 yards. With Jerome Harrison inactive, Jason Wright served as the backup, but did not receive any touches in this game. Charlie Frye scrambled for 28 yards on four attempts. Dennis Northcutt added seven yards on an end around.

Atlanta Falcons

Michael Vick struggled in this game, throwing two interceptions, and fumbling the ball away in the red zone in the final minutes of the game. Though he suffered from drops by his receivers, Vick was also responsible for some of the missed attempts due to the velocity at which he was attempting to force the ball to his wide receivers. Vick completed just 16 of 40 for 197 yards with one touchdown. With a nice 55 yard catch on the Falcons’ final drive, Roddy White led Falcons receivers with five catches for 99 yards. Michael Jenkins was the beneficiary of a nice play action fake by Michael Vick, as Jenkins was wide open in the flat for a touchdown. Jenkins caught just one other pass on the afternoon, for a total of two balls for 17 yards. Ashley Lelie dropped a potential touchdown pass, and caught just one ball for nine yards against the Browns. Alge Crumpler was active in the pass game, but well defended, and finished with four catches and 37 yards on thirteen targets. Crumpler was the intended target on both of Vick’s interceptions. Warrick Dunn added 35 yards out of the backfield on four receptions.

With Jerious Norwood inactive, Warrick Dunn carried the load for the Falcons. Dunn carried the ball 21 times for 73 yards, but was outpaced by Michael Vick, who gained 74 yards on seven attempts, though the Browns dedicated a player to spying Vick and preventing him from beating them by himself.

What you ought to know

QB Charlie Frye, Pass: 16 - 22 - 165 - 1 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 4 - 28 - 0

Frye finished with a passer rating of 109.1 by completing 73% of his passes for an average of 7.5 yards per attempt against the Falcons. This was the first game this season that Frye has gone without throwing an interception. Frye has thrown one touchdown in the last four games, and has only one multi-touchdown game this season, against Oakland in week four, but picked up his third win of the season against the Falcons. Frye continued to show confidence in his tight ends, and showed great touch down the left sideline on a timing pattern to Kellen Winslow to set up a field goal and put the Browns ahead by a 17-13 lead with under six minutes remaining in the game.

RB Reuben Droughns, Rush: 21 - 54 - 1

Droughns failed to average three yards per carry for the fifth time in eight games this season, and has yet to break the four yard per carry mark in any game yet. Though he found the end zone and had a respectable first half, Droughns gained just eleven yards on ten carries in the second half and was unable to help the Browns sustain drives. Droughns’ fumble came in the first half of the game on Atlanta’s side of the field. Droughns was not targeted out of the backfield at all in this game, despite extensive playing time on all three downs.

WR Braylon Edwards, Rec: 3 - 31 - 1 (6 targets)

Edwards found the end zone for the second week in a row on a nice crossing pattern. The Browns continue to use Edwards as a deep threat, and have established a pattern of trying to get him behind the defense on their opening drive, though without success in this game and in recent weeks. Edwards was targeted deep in the red zone on the scoring drive which culminated in a Reuben Droughns touchdown.

WR Dennis Northcutt, Rush: 1 - 7 - 0, Rec: 1 - 6 - 0 (2 targets)

In his two weeks back from a rib injury, Northcutt has more touches and yards in the punt return game.

WR Joe Jurevicius, Rec: 2 - 4 - 0 (3 targets)

Jurevicius had a quiet afternoon, though was targeted once in the red zone, and was utilized primarily on short passes.

TE Kellen Winslow Jr, Rec: 5 - 90 - 0 (6 targets)

Winslow made a number of very good catches in this game, including a forty yard touchdown to set up Droughns’ touchdown, and a thirty six yard catch to set up a field goal by Phil Dawson late in the game.

TE Steve Heiden, Rec: 4 - 24 - 0 (5 targets)

Heiden remained an active part of Jeff Davidson’s offensive game plan, and was targeted primarily rolling off the line.

PK Phil Dawson 1 - 1 FG, 2 - 2 XP, 5 points

Dawson connected on his only field goal attempt from 43 yards.

CLE Rush Defense

Leading most of the game, the Browns did not have to focus too much on stopping Warrick Dunn, though they did struggle somewhat in containing Michael Vick despite a concerted effort to limit him from beating them with his feet. Overall, the Browns gave up 149 yards on the ground, but forced a key fumble late in the game to help seal the victory.

CLE Pass Defense

With two interceptions, one sack, and limiting the Falcons’ passing attack to less than 200 yards, it was a pretty good afternoon even without their top cover cornerback in Leigh Bodden.

QB Michael Vick, Pass: 16 - 40 - 197 - 1 TD / 2 INT, Rush: 7 - 74 - 0

By completing just 40% of his passes and averaging less than five yards per attempt with two interceptions, Vick’s passer rating was just 43.4. More costly than dropped passes and inefficiency in the passing game was Vick’s late fumble as the Falcons had driven inside the red zone with over two minutes remaining while trailing 17-13. After going through his initial progression, Vick did not find an open receiver and took off to his left, carrying the ball in one hand below his knee. He seemed to trip and had the ball bounce off his leg as he was taken down hard, losing the ball and the game. Vick had exited briefly in this game after taking a hard shot and was replaced on one passing play by Matt Schaub.

RB Warrick Dunn, Rush: 21 - 73 - 0, Rec: 4 - 35 - 0 (7 targets)

Dunn combined for over 100 yards rushing and receiving but did not play a significant role in this game, carrying the ball just once on the three Falcons scoring drives. Dunn played more effectively in the first half of this game, and may have missed rotating in and out with Jerious Norwood, who was inactive in this game.

WR Roddy White, Rec: 5 - 99 - 0 (5 targets)

White nearly brought the Falcons all the way back in this game with a nice 55 yard catch on a deep ball where Roddy made a good adjustment in the air to make the catch. White caught every ball thrown his way, and made a case for playing time in additional two wide receiver sets for the Falcons.

WR Michael Jenkins, Rec: 2 - 17 - 1 (9 targets)

Jenkins benefited from a great play action fake to find himself wide open in the left flat and just barely got into the end zone to bring the Falcons back into the game at the end of the third quarter. Jenkins was guilty of dropping the ball again this week.

WR Ashley Lelie, Rec: 1 - 9 - 0 (5 targets)

Lelie dropped a catchable pass in the end zone and drew the ire of the Falcons fans at the end of the first half in a 14-0 game. Vick gave him another opportunity early in the third quarter with a deep ball down the left side, but Lelie failed to come up with a very catchable ball again.

TE Alge Crumpler, Rec: 4 - 37 - 0 (13 targets)

Crumpler drew plenty of coverage from the Browns defense, and was the target on both interceptions. On the first interception, the defender made a nice diving catch, though on the second one, the ball was underthrown and Crumpler failed to come back to the ball.

PK Morten Andersen 2 - 2 FG, 1 - 1 XP, 7 points

Andersen was utilized in the kicking game, and connected successfully from 41 and 44 yards out.

ATL Rush Defense

The Falcons shut down Reuben Droughns, and forced a pair of fumbles. Including yardage on scrambles by Charlie Frye and end arounds, the Falcons gave up just 91 yards on the ground on 27 carries.

ATL Pass Defense

Though they gave up just 165 yards through the air and limited the Browns to a third down efficiency of 14%, they were unable to slow down Charlie Frye, Kellen Winslow and Braylon Edwards.