John Skelton lost his chance to play hero when Jay Feely’s 38-yard field goal clanged off an upright at the end of regulation.
He gets to be the goat, instead. Skelton, who replaced Kevin Kolb after Kolb was injured late in the fourth quarter, was intercepted by Jairus Byrd in Arizona territory on the team’s first possession of overtime. Byrd returned the ball to the six-yard line and Rian Lindell gave Buffalo a 19-16 win two plays later.
The loss snaps Arizona’s eight-game home winning streak and they lost a chance to take over sole possession of first place in the NFC West. They are now locked in a three-way tie with the 49ers and Seahawks at 4-2. That’s nothing compared to the AFC East. All four teams are 3-3 after Buffalo’s win, which means that the Bills are in first place and last place all at once.
Both teams were able to run the ball well on Sunday -- the Bills had 165 yards on the ground while the Cardinals mustered 182 yards -- but the passing games were stuck in neutral. Ryan Fitzpatrick went 18-of-32 for 153 yards and was sacked twice, Brad Smith threw an interception on an ill-advised play when the Bills were trying to run out the clock, Kolb was 14-of-26 with a pick while getting dropped five times and Skelton completed just two of the 10 passes he attempted. That looked like it would be enough to get them the win until Feely missed a little more than a minute of game time after he hit a career-long 61-yarder to tie the game.
If there’s any upside for the Cardinals, Skelton’s pick probably means that there won’t be any quarterback controversy in Arizona this week. The downside is that they didn’t look much better with Kolb, who might not be available anyway.