Leinart Starts Great, but Chiefs Rally to a Victory

Matt Leinart’s great start wasn’t good enough, and Larry Johnson’s bad day had a big but painful finish.

Johnson, who rushed for only 36 yards, rumbled 78 yards with a screen pass to set up Lawrence Tyne’s 19-yard field goal with 1:36 remaining. The Chiefs rallied from 10 points down in the fourth quarter to beat the Arizona Cardinals, 23-20.

Leinart, in his first NFL start, completed his first six passes, two for touchdowns, against a Kansas City defense that had not given up a scoring pass in 12 quarters to start the season.

On his second pass play, Leinart called an audible from the line of scrimmage, then lofted a 49-yard touchdown pass to Anquan Boldin.

And with the clock winding down, Leinart drove Arizona into field-goal range. But Neil Rackers missed a 51-yard kick that would have tied it with two seconds to play.

“It was fun,” Leinart said. “I had a good time out there, just playing football.... I think we can take it as a positive. I think we moved up a little bit as an offense. That was my first start. Now we can just go from there.”

Johnson’s big play had an ugly ending when Arizona’s Antrel Rolle grabbed the star running back’s face mask and twisted his head as he fell out of bounds. Johnson lay motionless for a moment before getting up and leaving on his own.

“All I remember is trying to get back on my feet and try to move around and see if everything was working,” Johnson said.

Johnson planned to have an MRI exam today.

The personal foul penalty moved the ball to the Cardinals’ four-yard line, but the Chiefs (2-2) couldn’t punch it in and settled for the go-ahead field goal.

Arizona (1-4) moved from its 10 to the Chiefs’ 33 on its final drive, the last 26 yards on a pass to Troy Walters. But Rackers, who had connected from 41 and 45 yards earlier, was wide left.

Johnson’s 36 yards were his lowest rushing total in 16 games. He also dropped a pass, missed a handoff for one fumble that was charged to quarterback Damon Huard, then fumbled the ball away again later.

“I think it was the worst production game I ever had,” Johnson said.

Until that final screen pass.

“I’m a firm believer when a guy gets into a funk, you make sure he gets the ball,” Chiefs Coach Herm Edwards said.

Leinart, inserted in place of mistake-prone Kurt Warner, completed 22 of 35 passes for 253 yards and two touchdowns. One of his passes was intercepted. Bryant Johnson dropped one of his passes in the end zone.

“He showed good poise, and I think he had a good day,” Arizona Coach Dennis Green said.

Larry Fitzgerald caught a five-yard touchdown pass from Leinart, then left the game late in the first quarter because of a hamstring injury that Green said “looked fairly serious.” Fitzgerald said he would get an MRI exam today.

Huard, starting for the third successive game in place of injured Trent Green, was 26 of 38 for 288 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions.