Cardinals Are Still Snake-Bitten

The Arizona Cardinals tried two new quarterbacks but ended up with a familiar result: an agonizing defeat.

Chris Boniol’s 24-yard field goal 4:02 into overtime Sunday gave the Philadelphia Eagles a 13-10 victory over the Arizona Cardinals. Five of the Cardinals’ six defeats have come in the final minute or overtime, and those five losses were by a total of 14 points.

Arizona Coach Vince Tobin had trouble finding words to describe his frustration.

“We’ve had a lot of other tough ones,” he said. “You just run out of things to say after a situation presents itself several times.”

Rookie Jake “The Snake” Plummer, who took over as quarterback for an ineffective Stoney Case, led the Cardinals on a 98-yard touchdown drive and had Arizona (1-6) down to the Eagle 40 in overtime before an intentional grounding penalty pushed his team back.

Several Cardinals questioned the penalty, saying fullback Larry Centers was near where the ball bounced to the ground.

“You can say it’s a rookie mistake, but I’d say he made the wrong call because Larry was there,” Plummer said.

Arizona was forced to punt after its only overtime drive stalled, and the Eagles’ Rodney Peete had four completions in a 73-yard drive that ended with Boniol’s game-winning field goal.

“It was sort of an ugly game, but the guys hung in there and fought, and that’s what we need to get things rolling,” Eagle Coach Ray Rhodes said.

Peete, making his first start this season in place of Ty Detmer, also led the Eagles (3-4) on a 59-yard drive that ended with Boniol’s game-tying 38-yard field goal with 26 seconds left in regulation.