Playoff Fever Grows in Arizona : Interconference: Team is one victory away from a rare winning season after defeating Bengals, 28-7.

Playoff excitement isn’t the norm when it comes to the Cardinals. Neither is a winning season.

But then, neither is a coach like Buddy Ryan.

The Arizona Cardinals took another step toward the franchise’s first winning record since 1984, when they were the St. Louis Cardinals and Jim Hanifan was the coach, when they defeated the Cincinnati Bengals, 28-7, on Sunday.

Also, they are closing in on a possible postseason appearance for the first time in a non-strike year since 1975.

“We need to try to get to the playoffs,” said Garrison Hearst, who ran a yard for the first Cardinal score and threw a 10-yard pass to Larry Centers for the second. Jay Schroeder passed 15 yards to Ricky Proehl for the third score by Arizona, which entered the game with an NFL-low 20 touchdowns. Centers ran 10 yards for the fourth.

In winning their third consecutive game, the Cardinals (8-7) clinched their first .500-or-better season since going 9-7 a decade ago. The Cardinals moved to Phoenix in 1988.

With the New York Giants’ 16-13 victory over Philadelphia on Sunday, the Cardinals can make the playoffs by beating Atlanta on Saturday, coupled with a Dallas victory over the Giants and a San Francisco victory over Minnesota on Monday night. Losses by the Giants and Green Bay, which plays at Tampa Bay, would have the same effect.

“We have to go to Atlanta with a positive attitude and come out next week real focused,” said Hearst, who had 62 yards in 13 carries.

Schroeder’s toss to Proehl came on the first play of the second quarter as Arizona built a 21-0 lead, its biggest early margin since the first half of a 31-14 victory over Pittsburgh on Oct. 9, 1988.

“I forgot what it felt like, it had been so long,” said Ryan, hired in February after Joe Bugel was fired following a 7-9 season. “Like Seth Joyner said on the sideline, it feels good to have the pressure off.”

“It makes the game a lot of fun,” said Centers, who had four catches and set a franchise record with 72 receptions in a season. He broke the record of 70, set in 1984 by Ottis Anderson.

The game became tighter in the second half.

Schroeder sat out the second half because of a sore right knee, and the Cardinals bogged down behind Steve Beuerlein until a fourth-quarter drive capped by Centers’ scoring run on a draw play with 10:04 left.

The Cardinals dominated, keeping the ball for 41:31 to only 18:29 for Cincinnati and outgained the Bengals, 375 yards to 189.

The Bengals (2-13), who lost their fifth in a row, scored on Jeff Blake’s four-yard pass to Carl Perkins in the third quarter. But they had only 33 yards at halftime against Arizona’s third-ranked defense, partly because of two lost fumbles.

Joyner intercepted a pass in the end zone in the third quarter to end Cincinnati’s last serious threat.

Blake said he felt Joyner’s interception, which came on the first Bengal possession after their score, was a killer. “That broke our backs. We had the momentum going our way,” he said.

Blake said he looked toward Harold Green and saw Joyner. He said he never saw Joyner drop in front of Tony McGee.

“My first read was the flat, and he was covering Harold in the flat, and when I went to throw the ball to the inside, he broke off his guy and came inside to pick it off,” Blake said.

Hearst scored on the third play of an 11-yard drive that began after an Arizona punt hit Roger Jones on the ankle and Bryan Reeves of the Cardinals recovered.

The next Cardinal score came after a more conventional punt. Hearst had two eight-yard runs during the 64-yard drive, then took a pitch from Schroeder, rolled right and threw to Centers in the end zone after the safeties moved up for run support.

The Cardinals got another break when Blake pulled back from center and fumbled. Keith McCants recovered on the Bengal 27.

Three running plays gained 12 yards, and Schroeder then found Proehl in the flat. Hit at the goal line by James Francis, Proehl fumbled into the end zone but recovered.

The Bengals got 143 of their 189 yards in the third quarter.

Perkins’ scoring grab was set up by a 54-yard Blake-to-McGee pass. Blake dropped the ball into Perkins’ hands in the back of the end zone on the next snap.