GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) -- The Cardinals didn't get a great game from their defense, but they got two great plays.
The result was another wild win at home.
Jay Feely kicked a 46-yard field goal
6:31 into overtime to keep the Cardinals unbeaten with a 24-21 victory
over the Dolphins on Sunday.
Arizona (4-0) forced overtime when Kevin
Kolb threw a 15-yard touchdown pass on fourth down to Andre Roberts
with 22 seconds to play in regulation.
The Cardinals are off to their best
start since winning their first seven 38 years ago. They've won 9 of 11
overall and eight straight at home. Of those eight wins, five have come
in overtime.
"That's how we do it," Roberts said. "I
don't know what it is about us. We have to take it down to the last
moment of the game, but we're winning and that's all that matters."
Are they just lucky?
"It's not luck, I can tell you that,"
coach Ken Whisenhunt said. "It can't be luck as many times as we've been
successful with that."
The Dolphins (1-3) lost their second straight overtime game. They lost 23-20 last week to the Jets.
Miami rookie Ryan Tannehill threw for
431 yards, but his two turnovers on two big hits led to Arizona's final two scores.
First, Daryl Washington sacked and stripped the ball from Tannehill, whose fumble was recovered by Vonnie Holliday at midfield and setting up a Cardinals scoring drive.
The winning field goal in overtime came after
Tannehill was hit by Paris Lenon as he threw and Kerry Rhodes came up
with an interception.
Brian Hartline set a Dolphins record with 253 yards receiving on 12 catches. Miami outgained Arizona 480-297.
"I am kind of speechless," Hartline
said. "I really don't know what to say. ... Losing isn't funs but there
are games where you just get beat. I don't mind saying it -- I don't
feel we got beat."
The Cardinals were only too happy to force overtime.
"Fortunately for us, the overtime thing
continues to work for us," Whisenhunt said. "It wasn't pretty. We've
got a lot of things we've got to correct, but there's a lot of fight in
our team. To be able to hang in there, make some plays at the end and
win the game, it goes a long way to building confidence in what you can
do."
Kolb was 29 of 48 for 324 yards and
three touchdowns, two to Roberts and one to Larry Fitzgerald. He was
sacked eight times, 4 1/2 by Cameron Wake, and threw two interceptions.
One pick came after Patrick Peterson's 61-yard fumble return gave the
Cardinals the ball at the Dolphins' 3-yard line.
Sean Smith stepped in front of
Fitzgerald to make the pick in the end zone, his second interception. On
the next play, Tannehill found Hartline wide open for an 80-yard
touchdown. The abrupt turnaround, capped by a 2-point conversion
pass from Tannehill to Javorskie Lane, put the Dolphins ahead 21-14 with
7:05 left.
The Cardinals went nowhere after the kickoff, and the Dolphins advanced to the Cards' 43-yard line.
On second-and-8, Washington burst
through untouched and slammed into Tannehill, jarring the ball loose.
Holliday jumped on it at the Arizona 49.
Kolb was sacked on the first two plays
to make it third-and-18 at the Cards' 42. He completed 16-yard pass to
Roberts, then on fourth-and-2 threw for 9 yards again to Roberts to the
34. Completions to Fitzgerald and Roberts put the ball on the 15. Three
passes fell incomplete before on fourth down, as time was running out, Kolb
found Roberts just inside the left sideline for the score.
The Cardinals won the toss to get the ball
first in OT but went nowhere. After a punt, Tannehill was hit as Lenon blitzed up the middle, and Rhodes hauled in the ball and returned
it 5 yards to the Dolphins' 47.
Five plays later, Feely's field goal cleared the crossbar without a lot to spare.
The Cardinals' vaunted defense schemed
to shut down the running game of Reggie Bush and the rest of the
Dolphins and make Tannehill beat them, and he nearly did, as Miami took a
13-0 halftime lead.
The Cardinals cut it to 13-7 on Kolb's
2-yard TD pass to Fitzgerald, capping a drive that came after Dan
Carpenter, who missed a pair of long field goals against the Jets, was
wide right from 51 yards.
Arizona, struggling on offense all day
up to that point, made two big plays to take a 14-13 lead. First, Kolb
threw over the middle 32 yards to tight end Rob Housler to the Miami 46,
then Roberts got behind ex-Cardinal Richard Marshall, racing to the end
zone for a touchdown with 9:45 to play.
NOTES:
Miami's previous franchise record for yards receiving in a game was 238
(on 15 catches) by Chris Chambers against Buffalo on Dec. 4, 2005. ...
Fitzgerald caught a pass for the 121st consecutive game, tying the
franchise record held by Mel Gray. His streak is the second longest in the
NFL behind that of Tony Gonzalez (183). ... Fitzgerald had just one catch for 2 yards
in the first half. ... Feely was called for unnecessary roughness on the
second-half kickoff. ... Wake increased his career sack total to 42.5.
... Cardinals DT Darnell Dockett (hamstring) missed a game for only the
second time in his career.
