Close Doesn’t Mean Defeat for Cardinals

The Arizona Cardinals have been losing close games all season.

Fortunately Sunday, they played a team that has fared just as poorly when the outcome hangs in the balance.

Rookie quarterback Jake Plummer moved the Cardinals 55 yards in five plays over 31 seconds before Joe Nedney kicked a 43-yard field goal as time expired to give Arizona a 16-13 victory over the Baltimore Ravens.

Arizona (3-9) had lost five games by a total of 14 points before earning its first road win of the season with the type of drive that its opponents usually put together.

“All the close games we’ve been in, something bad happened,” Plummer said. “Those kind of things have kept happening to us this season.”

The Ravens tied the score on a 34-yard field goal by Matt Stover with 34 seconds left before Plummer, making his fifth NFL start, moved the Cardinals downfield. Nedney then kicked his third field goal of the game.

Plummer, who earlier threw two interceptions, completed four of five passes for 40 yards on the drive and finished 19 of 34 for 218 yards.

Three of the Ravens’ last four games have been decided on the last play; Baltimore is 0-2-1 in those games. The Ravens (4-7-1) have lost four games by a total of 15 points.

“We’ve been doing the same thing all year. We play good the whole game but on the last drive, the one that counts, we ruin it,” linebacker Peter Boulware said. “We’re undisciplined.”

Bam Morris scored the lone touchdown for the Ravens, whose flickering playoff hopes were snuffed out.

Morris, replacing the injured Jay Graham in the first half, gained 88 yards in 20 carries and led the Ravens with six receptions. But Baltimore failed to score more than one touchdown for the fourth week in a row.