Browns (2-2) and Baltimore (3-1) are on bye weeks in AFC North, where Steelers and Bengals are tied for second place. Much-hyped Philadelphia Eagles are 1-4 after loss at Buffalo.
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Associated PressBen Roethlisberger tied his own team record -- shared with Terry Bradshaw -- by throwing five touchdown passes in the Steelers' 38-17 win over the Titans.
Pittsburgh Steelers 38, Tennessee Titans 17
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania -- Ben Roethlisberger's sprained left foot is just fine thanks. And so, apparently, are the defending AFC champions.
The quarterback tied a team record by throwing for five touchdowns -- including two to Hines Ward -- and the Pittsburgh Steelers rolled past the Tennessee Titans 38-17.
The Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Ravens are on their bye weeks. The Browns (2-2) play at Oakland next Sunday against the Raiders (3-2). Baltimore leads the AFC North with a 3-1 record. Pittsburgh and the Cincinnati Bengals -- after the Steelers' win over Tennessee and the Bengals' 30-20 win over Jacksonville -- are 3-2. Thus, the Browns have dropped into last place in the AFC North, although just one-half game behind Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.
Other than a slight limp when he ran, Roethlisberger appeared to have no issues with his sprained left foot, also hitting Mike Wallace, Heath Miller and David Johnson for scores as the Steelers (3-2) ended Tennessee's three-game winning streak.
The five touchdown passes tied a single-game club record Roethlisberger already shares with Mark Malone and Terry Bradshaw.
Tennessee's Chris Johnson ran for a score but finished with 51 rushing yards on 14 carries as the Titans (3-2) hot start came to a screeching halt against Pittsburgh's rejuvenated defense.
The Steelers were playing without injured starters James Harrison, Casey Hampton and Aaron Smith. For an afternoon, they were not missed. Pittsburgh scored touchdowns on its first three possessions as Roethlisberger deftly picked apart the Titans.
He completed 24 of 34 passes for 228 yards, his only hiccup coming on an interception late in the first half after some miscommunication with Antonio Brown cost the Steelers a chance at a late score.
Though Roethlisberger vowed he wouldn't change the way he played despite spending the first four weeks of the season under siege, the Steelers used a more West Coast-style attack against the Titans with Roethlisberger taking a lot of three-step drops and letting his receivers do the work.
They were only too happy to oblige. Ward caught a season-high seven passes, Wallace added six catches for 82 yards and Miller caught three for 46 yards.
Roethlisberger, who has made a career out of extending plays and looking to go deep, played it closer to the vest. The Steelers spread the field and he did an excellent job of getting the ball out before the defense could get near his left foot, which was inside a steel-plated cleat designed to protect it from further damage.
Until Roethlisberger hit Wallace for a 40-yard score late in the fourth quarter, Pittsburgh's longest completion actually came on a 33-yard pass from punter Dan Sepulveda to Ryan Mundy on a fake punt in the second quarter. The play led to a 7-yard scoring pass from Roethlisberger to Ward that put the Steelers up 14-3.
The trickery was part of a creative offensive gameplan that included a pair of end arounds and a goal line formation with offensive tackle Trai Essex at fullback.
The Steelers biggest surprise, however, came from reserve running backs Isaac Redman and Jonathan Dwyer, pressed into service after starter Rashard Mendenhall dressed but did not play due to a sore hamstring.
Redman got the start and ran for 49 yards while Dwyer ran for 107 yards on 11 carries in just his second career game. He ripped off a 76-yard burst down the sideline in the second quarter leading to Roethlisberger's 1-yard scoring toss to Johnson that put the Steelers up 21-3.
It was all the cushion the defense would need.
Pittsburgh held Tennessee's Matt Hasselbeck in check, limiting him to 262 mostly inconsequential yards, sacking him three times and picking him off late in the third quarter to snuff out any hopes for a desperate rally.
The Titans were looking to prove their solid start under first-year coach Mike Munchak was no fluke. They came in with the NFL's stingiest defense -- allowing 14 points a game -- and were hoping a win on the road against the Steelers would serve as validation that they're a legitimate playoff contender.
It will have to wait after the Steelers looked like the Steelers for the first time this season.
Pittsburgh trudged through the first month of the season, looking overmatched in losses to Baltimore and Houston and just so-so in wins over Seattle and Indianapolis.
The Steelers re-signed tackle Max Starks this week just over two months after the team cut the veteran in a salary cap purge. He practiced three times and found himself starting at left tackle.
The return of one of Roethlisberger's best friends seemed to give the offensive line the spark it needed. Roethlisberger was sacked once and rarely got hit.
The defense, which came in ranked 22nd in the league against the run, was nearly as good.
Johnson darted 21 yards on the first play of the game, but after that he found little running room and was rendered almost useless after the Steelers ran out to a big lead.
Cincinnati Bengals 30, Jacksonville Jaguars 20
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Cincinnati Bengals used a poor punt to spark a come-from-behind victory.
Andy Dalton threw two touchdown passes, Bernard Scott scored with 1:56 remaining and the Bengals earned a 30-20 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Bengals (3-2) took advantage of Matt Turk's 22-yard punt into the wind to set up the winning score, a touchdown that was needed because Mike Nugent missed an extra point in the first half.
Dalton hooked up with Jermaine Gresham on a fourth-and-6 play to keep the short drive alive, then found Andre Caldwell for an 8-yard gain.
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APRookie quarterback Andy Dalton's two touchdown passes helped the Bengals improve to 3-2.
With the Jaguars (1-4) expecting a pass on third down, Dalton handed to Scott, who weaved his way into the end zone to make it 23-20.
Jacksonville had a chance to tie, but Blaine Gabbert fumbled a bad snap and the Bengals ended up with the ball. Cincinnati also scored on a fumble return on the final play.
The Jaguars have lost four in a row, and seven of eight dating to last season, putting coach Jack Del Rio's future further in doubt.
Jacksonville looked as if it might snap its losing streak when Gabbert found Jason Hill running alone behind Cincy's secondary.
Gabbert hit Hill in stride for a 74-yard score with about eight minutes remaining. Former Jaguars safety Reggie Nelson was the culprit. He bit on an underneath route, leaving Hill to run free.
Turk got Nelson off the hook.
The Jaguars forced a punt, but rookie receiver Cecil Shorts failed to field the bouncing ball at the 10. It rolled dead at the 2. Jacksonville did little, putting pressure on Turk to flip the field, which he was unable to do.
The Bengals wasted little time taking advantage.
They added to Jacksonville's misery with a touchdown on the final play. Jacksonville had the ball with 7 seconds remaining and nearly the entire field to go for a touchdown, so the Jaguars started a circus play. Gabbert hit Hill, who pitched to Jarett Dillard, who threw backward to Maurice Jones-Drew.
Jones-Drew fumbled trying to get rid of the ball, and Geno Atkins picked it up for a 10-yard score after time expired.
Dalton completed 21 of 33 passes for 179 yards, with two touchdowns and an interception.
Gabbert was 15 of 28 passing for 201 yards and a score.
The Bengals looked as if they would take a lead into the locker room for halftime, but Nugent's extra-point attempt clanged off the crossbar.
Dalton hooked up with A.J. Green on fourth down, then scrambled right on third-and-goal and found tight end Gresham in the back of the end zone.
That was Cincinnati's best drive since its first possession. Dalton completed three third-down passes, the last one a third-and-17 floater to Green at the goal line.
Green slipped behind cornerback Drew Coleman for his third touchdown of the season.
The Jaguars scored on three of their first four possessions and could have had a big lead. But Cincinnati's defense, ranked No. 1 in the NFL for the first time since 1983, forced short field goals.
Oakland Raiders 25, Houston Texans 20
HOUSTON, Texas -- This one's for you, Al.
The Oakland Raiders won the day after their maverick owner died, defeating the Houston Texans 25-20 behind Jason Campbell's two touchdown passes.
Michael Huff intercepted Matt Schaub's pass in the end zone on the final play to secure the win. Coach Hue Jackson dropped to his knees on the sideline, covered his face with his hands and cried as his team celebrated the bittersweet victory.
Sebastian Janikowski kicked four field goals, and Oakland survived a wild finish to improve to 3-2.
Stadiums around the league observed a moment of silence before the early games to honor Davis, who died at his Oakland home at age 82. The Raiders wore black decals on the backs of their helmets with "AL" written in silver letters.
Schaub threw for 416 yards and two touchdowns but missed star receiver Andre Johnson, who sat out with a right hamstring injury.
The Texans (3-2) still had a chance to win with under a minute left, facing a third-and-29 from the Oakland 39.
Schaub scrambled and found tight end Joel Dreessen open at the 5, and Schaub spiked the ball with seven seconds left. Instead of trying to run for the winning score, Schaub lobbed a pass to Jacoby Jones, and Huff stepped in to pick it off. Jones took Johnson's spot in the starting lineup.
The Raiders pulled off a fake punt that Davis would've loved to keep momentum in the fourth quarter.
After the Texans stopped Darren McFadden on third-and-1, Rock Cartwright took the snap and raced 35 yards to the Houston 25. Janikowski kicked a 42-yard field goal with 10 minutes left for a 25-17 Oakland lead.
With no Johnson to target, Schaub threw six consecutive incompletions during one stretch of the final quarter.
Neil Rackers' 40-yard field goal cut Oakland's lead to 25-20 with 2:56 left, and Houston's defense held to give the offense one more chance.
The Raiders flew to Houston on Friday, then learned Saturday morning that Davis had died. Jackson gathered his players for an emotional meeting at their hotel, and Campbell said the team's leaders were taking responsibility for rallying the players.
Hall of Fame former Raiders cornerback Willie Brown, who travels with the team, was hoping players would be inspired.
"They need to realize that every tear, every step, every block, every tackle -- it's for him," Brown said.
It didn't look promising after the Texans scored a touchdown on their opening series for the third straight game.
Arian Foster had a 20-yard run against the league's 29th-ranked run defense, and Kevin Walter caught a short touchdown pass with 8:15 left in the first quarter.
Oakland, meanwhile, needed a turnover and a blocked punt to generate early points.
Defensive end Lamarr Houston intercepted Schaub's pass, which was deflected, setting up Janikowski for a 54-yard field goal. Oakland got the ball at the Texans 39 after Daryl Blackstock blocked Brett Hartmann's punt, but the Raiders stalled again, and Janikowski kicked a 55-yarder to make it 7-6.
Janikowski is 5-for-6 on attempts 50 yards and longer this season, including one from 63 that tied an NFL record.
Hartmann pinned the Raiders inside their own 5 with his next punt, and Jason Allen intercepted Campbell's deep pass to Jacoby Ford near midfield. On first down, Schaub threw a 56-yard touchdown pass to Dreessen.
Oakland got its initial first down with just under two minutes left in the half. Four plays later, Campbell threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to Darrius Heyward-Bey.
The 2-point conversion failed, but the Raiders were lucky to trail only 14-12 at the break after producing only four first downs in the opening half.
Buffalo Bills 31, Philadelphia Eagles 24
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Running back Fred Jackson and an opportunistic Buffalo Bills defense combined to defeat the slow-starting, underachieving and turnover-prone Philadelphia Eagles.
Jackson finished with a combined 196 yards from scrimmage and scored on a 5-yard run in a 31-24 victory. Linebacker Nick Barnett had two of Buffalo's four interceptions.
After scoring on a 31-yard interception return in the second quarter, Barnett sealed the victory by grabbing Michael Vick's tipped pass intended for Jason Avant with 1:49 remaining at the Bills 26. It came as the Eagles were attempting to tie the game and overcome a 21-point second-half deficit.
The Bills took over and never gave the ball back. The game was decided on -- what else? -- another Eagles miscue.
Facing fourth-and-inches at midfield with 1:23 left, Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick was successful in getting Eagles defensive end Juqua Parker to jump offside. That gave Buffalo a new set of downs and a chance to run out the clock after Philadelphia had used up its timeouts.
The Bills (4-1) bounced back from blowing a 14-point lead in a 23-20 loss at Cincinnati last weekend. Buffalo has matched its best start since 2008.
The Eagles (1-4) continue to unravel. And not even Vick's suggestion of dropping their "Dream Team" label this week has put a stop to this ongoing nightmare.
Vick went 26 of 40 for 315 yards passing and two touchdowns, but was undone by a career-worst four interceptions. He added 90 yards rushing give him 4,948 for his career, passing Randall Cunningham for most yards by an NFL quarterback.
Philadelphia has lost four in a row -- it's longest skid since 2005 -- and is off to its worst start since 1999, coach Andy Reid's first season.
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APBuffalo's Fred Jackson runs five yards for a touchdown during the Bills' 31-24 win over the Eagles.
The Bills rolled to a 28-7 lead early in the third quarter on Brad Smith's 6-yard scamper.
The Eagles rallied back by scoring 17 points on three of their next four drives before their sloppiness resurfaced on their final possession.
Facing third-and-3 at the Bills 29, Vick attempted a swing pass to Avant at the left sideline. Cornerback Drayton Florence got his hands on the ball, which tipped off Avant as he was falling backward. Barnett then scooped it up before the ball hit the ground.
The Bills defense made up for allowing 489 yards offense by forcing five takeaways, including a fumble recovery. Buffalo now has 12 interceptions -- one more than it had all last year. And the defense has scored touchdowns on interception returns in three straight games, matching Buffalo's best stretch since its inaugural season in 1960.
Safety George Wilson led the defense with 11 tackles, an interception and broke up three passes.
Vick had three of his first four possessions end with interceptions.
After his third interception to Barnett, Vick walked off the field with his head down before being consoled on the sideline by several teammates and coach Andy Reid, who put his arm on the quarterback's shoulder. As Vick returned to the field, guard Danny Watkins patted Vick on the helmet.
LeSean McCoy scored on a 10-yard run, while Vick hit DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin for touchdown passes.
The Eagles offense didn't get much help from its high-priced defense, which had difficulty tackling in allowing Buffalo 331 yards offense and 21 first downs.
Receiver Donald Jones set up Jackson's game-opening touchdown with an 18-yard catch-and-run, in which he broke three tackles before being brought down at the Eagles 6.
And they were totally caught off guard on a screen pass to Jackson, who ran free for 49 yards to set up the Bills' second score, David Nelson's 6-yard catch.
Fitzpatrick went 21 of 27 for 193 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
New Orleans Saints 30, Carolina Panthers 27
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina -- Drew Brees gave rookie Cam Newton a lesson in staging comebacks.
Brees found Pierre Thomas wide open on the right side for a 6-yard touchdown with 50 seconds left, helping the New Orleans Saints rally past the Carolina Panthers for a 30-27 win.
Brees threw for 359 yards and two touchdowns, including a nearly flawless final drive in which he completed 8 of 9 passes for 80 yards to take back momentum after Newton and the Panthers (1-4) had taken their first lead early in the fourth quarter.
The Saints' defense finally sealed the win, letting the Panthers reach only midfield before Newton's desperation heave downfield fell incomplete for the game's the final play.
Newton threw for 224 yards and two touchdowns, including the go-ahead 5-yard scoring pass to Greg Olsen for a 27-23 lead with 12:32 to play. He also scored on a sneak late in the third quarter.
Mark Ingram also ran for a second-quarter touchdown for the Saints (4-1), while Brees found Jed Collins for a short scoring pass about a minute into the game. But Brees' biggest target was tight end Jimmy Graham, who had eight catches for 129 yards and repeatedly beat undersized defenders to the ball.
In addition, Saints kicker John Kasay -- who was on the first Panthers squad in 1995 and stayed with the team until last season -- had three field goals in his return to Charlotte.
Newton seemed poised to deliver an impressive win against Brees and the Saints, starting when he bulled his way through a pile up at the goal line for a 1-yard keeper late in the third that cut New Orleans' lead to 23-20.
Then, after Brees' high pass for Graham bounced off the tight end's outstretched right arm and into the arms of Sherrod Martin, Newton came through again. This time, with the Panthers facing a third-and-goal, he zipped a pass to Olsen just inside the goal line for the 5-yard TD and the 27-23 lead.
Newton even got the ball back with the lead and a chance to work on the clock with about 10 minutes left. But the Panthers managed to burn only three minutes and reach midfield before punting back to the Saints -- and Brees made them pay.
The game had a near fight when Newton found Steve Smith for a 54-yard touchdown in the first quarter.
Newton stepped up in the pocket -- aided by a block from Jonathan Stewart that flipped blitzer Jonathan Vilma over his shoulder -- and fired a high pass downfield to Smith. Smith jumped to beat cornerback Jabari Greer to the pass, knocking Greer to the ground and giving Smith an easy 30-yard run to the end zone.
But as Smith coasted the final 5 yards and crossed the goal line, safety Roman Harper sprinted in on the left side and leveled Smith with a hard hit.
Smith immediately jumped up and flipped the ball to the turf defiantly while players from both sides ran down and began shoving each other. Smith then locked up with Saints safety Malcolm Jenkins, shoving him to the ground and standing over him while holding a firm grip on Jenkins' facemask before the scuffle finally ended.
Harper's late hit was the only penalty called, though it did seem to give a little more spark to the Panthers and a relatively quiet home crowd.
Kansas City Chiefs 28, Indianapolis Colts 24
INDIANAPOLIS -- Matt Cassel finally found a winning hand Sunday. He used Dwayne Bowe's size and Steve Breaston's speed to pick apart Indianapolis' defense.
Cassel threw four touchdown passes -- two each to Bowe and Breaston -- leading the Chiefs back from a 17-point first-half deficit for a 28-24 victory over the winless Indianapolis Colts.
With Bowe breaking tackles and Breaston eluding the Colts' coverage, Kansas City (2-3) tied the largest comeback in franchise history. Bowe had seven catches for 128 yards, Breaston finished with four catches for 50 yards and Jackie Battle carried 19 times for 119 yards.
The injured Peyton Manning stood on the sideline for the Colts' latest loss. He watched from about 30 yards down field. He was dressed in khaki pants, a white shirt and a blue baseball hat and was often seen folding a paper and consulting with Curtis Painter and the Colts' receivers.
Whatever Manning said worked brilliantly in the first half when Painter was 12 of 17 for 237 yards with two touchdowns and a quarterback rating of 152.2. But it was an eerily familiar second half. Painter went 3 of 10 for 40 yards, and the Colts defense never found an answer for the Cassel-to-Bowe combination.
Indy is 0-5 for the first time since 1997, the year before Manning came to Indianapolis. It's the Colts' first five-game losing streak in a decade.
After trailing 17-0 and 24-7 in the first half, the Chiefs offense woke up. Cassel moved the Chiefs 80 yards in six plays, hooking up with Breaston, who made a nifty stop near the sideline and dived into the end zone with for a 16-yard TD with 13 seconds left in the half. That got the Chiefs within 24-14.
In the final minute of the third quarter, Cassel found Bowe for a 5-yard TD pass to make it 24-21.
And then, after dominating the second half and seeing starting cornerback Jerraud Powers leave with a hamstring injury, Cassel went back to Breaston, who was covered by Powers' replacement, rookie Chris Rucker. The 11-yard score gave Kansas City its only lead of the day with 5:15 left in the game.
Painter opened the game with a 6-yard TD pass to Pierre Garcon for a 7-0 lead, then set up Adam Vinatieri for a 53-yard field goal, his longest since 2002, to make it 10-0.
Painter and Garcon hooked up again for a 67-yard TD pass that gave Indy a 17-0 early in the second quarter, and Delone Carter scored on a 3-yard run late in the first half to give Indy a 24-7 lead.
Seattle Seahawks 36, New York Giants 25
EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey -- Doug Baldwin, Brandon Browner and Charlie Whitehurst were the unlikely stars as the Seattle Seahawks beat the New York Giants at their own game: with a fourth-quarter rally.
Backup quarterback Whitehurst threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Baldwin with 2:37 to play and Browner returned an interception 94 yards to thwart a desperate, late challenge by the Giants as the Seahawks won 36-25.
Baldwin, who caught eight passes for 136 yards, is an undrafted free agent from Stanford who leads the team with 20 receptions. Browner is a first-year NFL player who spent four years in the Canadian Football League before joining the Seahawks. His romp down the right sideline -- with coach Pete Carroll sprinting along with him for a few yards -- finished off New York (3-2), which had rallied for victories in its last two games.
"It was almost like slow motion, the tipped ball and it landed in my hands and it was a footrace from there," Browner said.
Whitehurst, who replaced the injured Tarvaris Jackson in the third quarter, led the Seahawks (2-3) on an 80-yard touchdown drive capped with his pass to Baldwin on a play in which the Giants seemed to stop after defensive end Osi Umenyiora jumped offside.
"I did notice that," Whitehurst said of the offside. "Leon (Washington) picked him up and they kind of stopped dead and I got the ball out of my hand quickly. Doug was wide open."
The Giants mounted another late drive and had first-and-goal at the Seahawks 5 after consecutive completions of 41 and 19 yards to Victor Cruz. A procedure penalty on first down pushed the ball back to the 10, then Eli Manning (24 of 39 for 420 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions) looked to Cruz one more time. His pass tipped off Cruz's hands, bounced off Kam Chancellor and was picked off in the air at the 6-yard line by Browner, who went the distance to ice the game.
Cruz had eight catches for 161 yards, including a 68-yard TD after Chancellor misplayed what should have been an interception and tipped the ball into the air. Cruz stuck out his right arm for a one-handed catch and sped the final 25 yards to score, making it 22-19 for New York.
Whitehurst finished 11 of 19 for 149 yards in relief of Jackson, who was 15 of 22 for 166 yards and a touchdown before going out with a chest injury after being tackled on a third-quarter run.
Marshawn Lynch rushed for 98 yards and a touchdown, and Steven Hauschka had field goals of 51 and 43 yards.
Manning's touchdown passes covered 13 yards to tight end Jake Ballard, 19 to Hakeem Nicks just before halftime and the long one to Cruz, which seemingly had the Giants on the road to their fourth straight win.
Seattle took a 16-14 lead on a safety by Anthony Hargrove on a tackle on a play that started at the Giants 5. The lead grew to 19-14 on the long field goal by Hauschka, and then the fun started in the fourth quarter.
The Seahawks should have gone to the locker room at halftime with at least a seven-point lead, but instead found themselves tied at 14 after Giants cornerback Aaron Ross picked off Jackson's throw at the New York 41 with less than a minute to play. Manning then completed four straight passes, the final one covering 19 yards to a diving Nicks in the right corner of the end zone.
The interception wasn't the only mistake for Seattle, which lost two fumbles deep in Giants territory. Lynch lost one at the 11 in the first quarter and Michael Robinson lost the other on a first-and-goal from the 2 in the second quarter.
The game opened with the teams exchanging lightning-fast 80-yard touchdown drives. Ben Obomanu scored on an 11-yard pass in the flat that caught the Giants in a blitz, while Ballard carried linebacker David Hawthorne the final 2 yards on a 13-yard TD pass up the middle.
Giants guard Chris Snee and long snapper Zak DeOssie, sustained concussions.
New York's defense had six quarterback sacks, led by Jason Pierre-Paul with 2 1/2, and Seattle had three, two by Chris Clemons.
Minnesota Vikings 34, Arizona Cardinals 10
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota -- Adrian Peterson powered in for three first-quarter touchdowns to build a cushion so big even the Minnesota Vikings couldn't lose it, and the Vikings earned their first victory, 34-10, over the Arizona Cardinals.
"It felt good just to get a 'W' first and foremost and get out of this slump. It was a good test for us, and we did what we've been preaching," said Peterson, who rushed 29 times for 122 yards.
Donovan McNabb jogged in for a score, too, and the Vikings (1-4) went ahead 28-0 less than 12 1/2 minutes into the game. Kevin Kolb had three turnovers for the Cardinals (1-4) and finished 21 for 42 for 232 yards and one touchdown pass, a performance so shaky the Vikings were able to confidently run down the clock after some ugly offense of their own during the second and third quarters.
From McNabb's bounced passes to Kolb's errant throws, neither former Philadelphia quarterback played well. McNabb's final numbers against what had been a leaky Arizona secondary were 10 completions, 21 attempts, 169 yards and a bunch of boos.
"I don't worry about it all, because at the end of the day you look up and you see a win," McNabb said. "We're excited about it."
The Vikings started three straight first-quarter drives at the Arizona 18, 24 and 25, stretching their lead so large so quickly the fans stopped chanting for rookie Christian Ponder. McNabb and the Vikings were still jeered off the field at the half with a 28-3 advantage after a sack prompted a run-out-the-clock order from coach Leslie Frazier.
The Cardinals had six possessions in the first quarter, only once crossing their own 30. Kolb's batted pass was intercepted by Asher Allen, and Brian Robison knocked the ball out of Kolb's hand on a speed rush to end another series before it started.
The Vikings lost their first four games by a combined 19 points, including two devastating defeats here last month when Tampa Bay (17-0) and Detroit (20-0) came back from big halftime deficits.
The Cardinals could've easily finished the first quarter of the season undefeated, too, losing by a total of eight points to Washington, Seattle and the New York Giants. The Vikings gave the Cardinals their chance to get back in this one, too, when a fumble lost by Michael Jenkins on the first drive of the third quarter gave them the ball near midfield.
Kolb was under heavy pressure on the next drive, but he finally found Larry Fitzgerald for a critical back-shoulder completion near the goal line, and Beanie Wells rumbled in on the next play to cut the lead to 28-10. An eerie silence came over the crowd, as if everyone in the stadium started to dread another collapse.
But on the ensuing possession, McNabb found Devin Aromashodu, who took over Bernard Berrian's role as the deep-route wide receiver, on a crossing pattern that netted 60 yards. That drive at least ate up some time and ended with a 26-yard field goal by Ryan Longwell, the first score by the Vikings in more than 29 minutes.
Wells was tripped up on fourth-and-1 on Arizona's next drive at his own 47 by Allen -- playing for absent stalwart Antoine Winfield, out with a neck injury -- and the Vikings took over in Cardinals territory.
Right tackle Jeremy Bridges, who had a rough afternoon, was flagged for illegal hands to the face that wiped out what would've been a touchdown pass by Kolb to Early Doucet on the Cardinals' next possession, and they went on to turn the ball over on downs.
