The penalty moved the Cardinals up and made it easier for them to nail a 32-yard kick to win the game.
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Arians, however, was not positively aglow after the team’s last-second 34-31 win over the Cincinnati Bengals.
Cincinnati had it third-and-26 at the Arizona 38 when Dalton threw 22 yards to Marvin Jones.
“They brought a lot of pressure”, Bengals left tackle Andrew Whitworth said of the Cardinals. The game-winner from Catanzaro would’ve been a 45-yarder if not for an unsportsmanlike penalty on Cincinnati’s Domata Peko that gave Arizona the ball at the 14. “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that penalty be called, I think since I’ve been in the National Football League, you know, 10 years”.
“We had way too many penalties today”, Peko said.
Peko, erroneously flagged for mimicking the snap count, said “we were fighting the refs and the Cardinals”.
“It’s kind of ridiculous”, he said.
Carson Palmer overcame two early interceptions to throw four touchdown passes and, with 57 seconds left, completed three quick passes to move the team into field goal range after the Bengals rallied to tie it at 31.
“We were still running back from our prior play, and I was just saying, ‘Get set, get set, get set'”. “We’ve got to get sacks and rush, and all those things have got to go on one-minute drives”. The second half, I thought offensively we played extremely well.
Even more gut-wrenching, Cardinals offensive lineman Ted Larsen jumped offside on the play Peko was penalized, which would’ve taken 10 seconds off and pushed the game to overtime. Dalton was sacked four times, resulting in a lost fumble, Cincinnati’s only turnover of the night. All the goodwill of those first eight games is gone – not just because you lost 34-31 Sunday night to the Cardinals, and not just because you lost in prime time again (16 of their last 20).
Yet the Bengals took a loss, in primetime, and while Dalton shouldered the weight of the oh-so-close misfire to Green on 3rd-and-2 at the pylon, running back Giovani Bernard could only shake his head in wonder at the effort of his quarterback.
Arizona rookie speedster J.J.
Arizona rookie speedster J.J. Nelson caught four passes for 142 yards, including a 64-yard touchdown reception.
“We were playing uphill all day, especially in the first half”, Wilson said. Game over. On something which a lot of people would say is routine, we missed. Down 29-25, Palmer put on his big boy pants and got to work, leading the Cardinals down the field before finding Jermaine Gresham in the end zone.
Cowboys 24, Dolphins 14: Tony Romo returned from a collarbone injury to throw for two scores as Dallas won for the first time since he was hurt in Week 2.
The contest carried some extra weight on a few different fronts, from it being the 100th game the Arizona Cardinals would play in University of Phoenix Stadium, to it coming against the former team Palmer demanded to be traded from, and to it being a chance for his team to improve to 8-2 and tighten its hold on one of the top two NFC playoff seeds. The Bengals have the second-best record and potentially the No. 2 seed, with Denver and ailing quarterback Peyton Manning third at 7-2.
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Quarterback Andy Dalton’s passer rating in the Cincinnati Bengals’ Sunday night loss at Arizona was below his season average of 104. In the second half, Palmer was 13-for-19 for 236 yards and three touchdowns.
