Glendale, Ariz. – 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 just 36 yards, rumbled 78 yards with a screen pass to set up Lawrence Tynes’ 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 on Sunday.
Leinart, in his first NFL start, completed his first six passes, two for touchdowns, against a Kansas City defense that had not allowed 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 wide receiver Anquan Boldin.
And with the clock winding down, Leinart drove the Cardinals into field-goal range. But Neil Rackers missed a 51-yard kick that would have tied the game 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. 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. “I wanted to be safe about it and see if there was really something wrong or not.”
The personal-foul penalty moved the ball to the Cardinals’ 4-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,” John- son said.
Leinart, inserted in place of mistake-prone veteran Kurt Warner, completed 22-of-35 passes for 253 yards and two TDs. He was intercepted once. He also saw a pass dropped in the end zone by Bryant Johnson.
“He showed good poise and I think he had a good day,” Arizona coach Dennis Green said. “He did a lot of great things.”
