Rams Stop Warner Short of Redemption

Any last-minute drive to win a game would have been great. For Kurt Warner, to do it against the St. Louis Rams would have been perfect.

Warner, however, and his Arizona Cardinals fell a few yards shy, doomed by Adam Archuleta’s sack and a false-start penalty as time ran out in the Rams’ 17-12 victory Sunday.

“A perfect scenario, a perfect place to be in,” Warner said. “But then a lot of times it’s more disappointing when you don’t get it done in a situation like that.”

Warner, who completed 29 of 42 passes for 327 yards in his first game against the St. Louis franchise he directed to two Super Bowl berths and one NFL crown, drove the Cardinals to the St. Louis five-yard line in the final seconds.

But Archuleta, playing on the field where he was a star for Arizona State, burst through for a sack. “They did a good job coming down the field,” Archuleta said, “and we needed that play.”

The Cardinals (0-2) scrambled into formation for another play, but a flag was thrown against tackle Leonard Davis. Under NFL rules the clock kept running to end the game. Davis was getting an intravenous injection of fluids after the game and wasn’t available for comment.

“There’s no finger-pointing or anything like that,” Cardinal wide receiver Bryant Johnson said. “We just have to execute on offense.”

Marc Bulger directed touchdown drives on the first possession of each half for the Rams (1-1), and the Cardinals advanced inside the Rams’ 12 four times without a touchdown. In two games, Arizona’s offense has one touchdown and six field goals.

“It’s frustrating for the whole team,” Coach Dennis Green said of the red-zone problems, “because everything is affected by it.”