Duncan Kicks Up a Desert Victory

Tim Duncan earned redemption. Owen Pochman may be out of a job.

That was the tale of two kickers in the Arizona Cardinals’ 16-13 victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

Duncan, kicking in place of injured Bill Gramatica, missed three of five field-goal attempts in regulation, including a 50-yard try as the fourth quarter ended. But his 39-yard field goal with 10 minutes 1 second left in overtime gave Arizona its first victory over the 49ers in 10 years.

“It was great,” Duncan said. “I put the team in a bad situation in the first place, so it was nice to go out there and kind of make up for it.”

Pochman, who nearly lost his job after missing three field-goal tries last week against Tampa Bay, missed two Sunday, including a go-ahead try from 35 yards with 2:25 left in regulation.

He added to his troubles by knocking the overtime kickoff out of bounds to give Arizona (2-5) the ball on its 40.

Pochman wasn’t talking, but Coach Dennis Erickson said he would evaluate the situation.

Marcel Shipp carried 35 times, one shy of the Cardinal record, for a career-best 165 yards.

Jeff Garcia sat out three series because of a sprained ankle, but returned to engineer the game-tying fourth-quarter touchdown drive for San Francisco (3-5).

Adrian Wilson had the Cardinals’ first blocked punt in six years to set up Duncan’s 20-yard field goal that made it 13-6 in the third quarter.

Wilson drew two personal fouls and was ejected during San Francisco’s game-tying drive of 73 yards in 11 plays. He was called for unnecessary roughness for a hit that knocked Jed Weaver’s helmet off on third and seven from the Arizona 45. Wilson and Coach Dave McGinnis maintained that it was not a helmet-to-helmet hit.

The penalty kept the drive alive, and Wilson got another one for kicking Weaver in the face away from the play. That made it first and goal on the five.

The drive ended when Garcia was met hard by Justin Lucas at the one. The ball popped loose and Kwame Harris grabbed it and scored. Pochman’s kick was good to tie the score, 13-13, with 7:12 to play.