Lomax Strong-Arms Bengals, 41-27 : Cardinal Quarterback Recovers From Bruised Elbow

For quarterback Neil Lomax, after nursing a bruised elbow through a long week of practice, facing the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday represented almost a vacation.

“We called a couple of things and saw what they were doing,” said Lomax after leading the St. Louis Cardinals to a 41-27 victory. “After that, it was almost routine. I’m going to take what they give me. If they want to blitz, they’re going to pay the price.”

Lomax threw two touchdown passes, one to Earl Ferrell on a 27-yard play and the other to Roy Green on a 25-yard play.

Ferrell, a 224-pound fullback, also had 68 yards rushing in 7 carries.

“It was a lot of effort by a lot of guys. We had to play an effective defense, and the guys did,” St. Louis Coach Jim Hanifan said. “They had some adversity and fell behind and yet they bounced back and got right back in the ballgame.”

St. Louis kicker Neil O’Donoghue added field goals of 46 and 49 yards, the first putting the Cardinals ahead to stay at 17-14 at the close of the second quarter.

Sealing St. Louis’ first victory in three regular-season tries against the Bengals were short touchdown plunges in the fourth quarter by Stump Mitchell and Perry Harrington.

In the final minute of the game, Lionel Washington, the Cardinals’ left cornerback, suffered a broken right ankle when he became entangled with Cincinnati wide receiver Cris Collinsworth. He is expected to be sidelined six-to-eight weeks.

The game didn’t start out well for Lomax. He was stripped of the ball by Jeff Schuh on the first play of the game, and Cincinnati’s Tim Krumbrie recovered. Four plays later, Cincinnati scored on a four-yard pass from Ken Anderson to Stanford Jennings.

Anderson also fumbled the ball away in the first quarter, missing connections on a handoff with Larry Kinnebrew at Cincinnati’s 39 and David Galloway recovered. Three plays later, Lomax connected with Ferrell for a touchdown. Ferrell got past linebacker Schuh after taking a short pass.

Cincinnati took a 14-7 lead as Anderson and Eddie Brown connected on a 44-yard pass play.

The Cardinals got even on a one-yard plunge by Ottis Anderson, which capped a 63-yard drive in which Anderson had runs of 16 and 12 yards and caught passes for 9 and 12 yards.

Lomax’s touchdown pass to Green put St. Louis ahead, 24-14. A 42-yard pass play to Mitchell set up Mitchell’s touchdown plunge.

Anderson, after passing for only 112 yards through most of three quarters, gave way to backups Turk Schonert and Boomer Esiason in the fourth quarter.

Esiason collaborated with Kinnebrew on a 29-yard pass play to give the Bengals a consolation touchdown with 52 seconds remaining.