Surprise victory is in the Cards

The Seattle Seahawks gave away a chance to clinch their third straight NFC West title Sunday.

Arizona scored 14 points off Seattle fumbles and a Seahawks comeback came up half a yard shy at the finish in the Cardinals’ 27-21 victory over the reigning NFC champions.

“We were just too careless with the ball,” Seattle Coach Mike Holmgren said. “That’s pretty much the game in my opinion.”

Edgerrin James topped 100 yards rushing for the second game in a row and Matt Leinart threw touchdown passes of 56 and five yards to lead Arizona (4-9) to its third victory in four games.

The last of Seattle’s three lost fumbles led to Leinart’s five-yard scoring pass to Larry Fitzgerald for the go-ahead score on the first play of the fourth quarter.

After Neil Rackers’ 40-yard field goal with 3 1/2 minutes to go to put Arizona up by six points, Seattle (8-5) drove from its 17 to the Arizona 15. But on third and 12 from the 17, former Seahawk Chike Okeafor sacked Matt Hasselbeck for an eight-yard loss.

On fourth down, Hasselbeck threw to Deion Branch, but the receiver was tackled by Adrian Wilson at the Arizona six, less than a yard shy of the first down.

It was the last of several big plays by the Arizona safety.

“Big tackle ... Adrian, fumble recovery ... Adrian, break up on the pass ... Adrian,” Cardinals Coach Dennis Green said. “That’s the kind of game he had and the kind of game he has every week.”

Green called Okeafor’s play “the pass rush of the year for us.”

“He went up against maybe the best lineman in the game [Seattle tackle Walter Jones] and made a great move,” Green said.

Seattle had won four of five and, with San Francisco’s loss to Green Bay, could have wrapped up the division crown. Instead, the Cardinals have won two in a row for the first time this season.

The Seahawks may well have lost a fourth fumble had Hasselbeck not made a head-first dive to recover it.

“We had some opportunities and it came down to the last play of the game basically,” Hasselbeck said. “It’s hard to overcome a few and it’s very hard to overcome a bunch of fumbles. That’s just kind of where it was today.”

James, who had no 100-yard efforts in his first 11 games with the Cardinals, gained 115 yards in 26 carries to become the first Arizona back to have consecutive 100-yard games since Marcel Shipp in 2003.

“Edge is just running the ball great,” Leinart said. “He’s finding holes, he’s finding seams, he’s dragging guys, making guys miss. When we’re putting all this together as an offense, it’s tough to stop us.”

Leinart completed 21 of 34 passes for 232 yards, including a 56-yard touchdown pass to Bryant Johnson on Arizona’s first play from scrimmage.