It’s been an afternoon of fits and starts for the Cardinals, but they’ve found enough working to erase a 13-0 halftime deficit.
Kevin Kolb hit Andre Roberts for a 46-yard touchdown with just under 10 minutes left to play to grab a 14-13 lead over the Dolphins. Kolb set up the touchdown with a 33-yard completion to tight end Rob Housler, two big plays in a row for an offense that hadn’t come up with too many of them up until that point in the game.
Then it was the defense’s turn to make a big play. Dolphins wide receiver Legedu Naanee fumbled after catching a pass from Ryan Tannehill and cornerback Patrick Peterson returned the ball to the foot of the goal line. Kolb was intercepted by Sean Smith in the end zone -- Smith’s second pick of the game -- and the Dolphins remain just a point back.
Their first score was a three-yard touchdown pass to Larry Fitzgerald at the end of a drive that started with good field position after Dan Carpenter missed a 51-yard field goal at the end of the first Miami drive of the second half. In between the scores, there’s been a lot of the same ineffective play that we saw in the first half, including another sack for Cameron Wake.
Miami’s passing offense, which was so hot in the first half, has struggled since the break. Tannehill was picked off by Greg Toler and had another would-be interception overturned via replay. The Dolphins haven’t been able to generate any kind of consistency in the running game, leaving the team to rely on Tannehill’s arm to run out the clock.
It hasn’t worked so far and now the Dolphins are going to have to try to mount a comeback with more than seven minutes to go in Arizona.
UPDATE 6:55 p.m. ET: And they’ve done it. Tannehill hit Brian Hartline for an 80-yard touchdown to put the Dolphins back in front 21-14 after a successful two-point conversion. Hartline now has 245 passing yards on the day, joining with Davone Bess to be the first two Dolphins receivers with more than 100 receiving yards in the same game since Oronde Gadsden and Chris Chambers in 2001.