Overtime was unkind again to the Miami Dolphins.
The Dolphins lost in the fifth quarter by three points for the second straight win when Jay Feely’s 46-yard field goal sailed through the uprights. It was the second Arizona possession of overtime as the Dolphins forced them to go three-and-out after receiving the kickoff and then moved the ball near midfield. But Ryan Tannehill threw an interception to Kerry Rhodes and Kevin Kolb hit Andre Roberts with a key third-down conversion to get the Cardinals to 4-0 on the season.
Tannehill also fumbled the ball to set up Kolb and Roberts for the game-tying touchdown late in the fourth quarter, a double dose of bad news that will make it hard to celebrate his 431 passing yards over the course of the afternoon. Tannehill’s blunders will sting, but there were definitely signs of the quarterback that the Dolphins hope that Tannehill will become in Arizona on Sunday.
There were also signs that Brian Hartline will put an end to the worry about the quality of the receiving corps. Hartline set a franchise record with 253 receiving yards, gaudy numbers that follow a strong start to the year for the 2009 fourth-round pick. Cameron Wake also had 4.5 sacks for the Dolphins to continue the trend of strong individual performances rendered less meaningful by the final score.
Kolb didn’t fare too badly on the individual glory side of things either. He wound up with 324 passing yards on the day and threw three touchdowns to help overcome two interceptions and some slow decisions and poor blocking that helped Wake and his mates rack up eight sacks over the course of the game. Roberts finished the day with 118 yards and two scores and the Cardinals showed an ability to come from behind twice in a game that could have easily gotten away from them.
It didn’t, though, and they remain all by themselves in first place in the NFC West.