Special-teams miscues prove costly

With the holidays fast approaching, the Cardinals were in a giving mood.

Yards, points, possession — anything the Giants needed.

Arizona gaffed twice on extra-point tries and had numerous miscues on kick coverage in its 37-29 loss to New York on Sunday in Glendale.

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“(Special teams) was the big difference in the game,” Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt said.

Arizona had three second-quarter gaffes that set the tone, but the final moment of ineptitude hurt the most.

A 5-yard touchdown catch by Anquan Boldin trimmed the Giants’ lead to 34-26 with 4:02 remaining in the game, and an ensuing onside kick surprised the Giants.

Cardinals cornerback Ralph Brown had the ball bounce right at him, but it hit his chest and fell to the ground, where Giants linebacker Chase Blackburn fell on it to effectively end Arizona’s comeback attempt.

“It was a little short, and I was waiting for it past the 10-yard line (distance the ball has to travel),” Brown said. “It hit the ground and came up on me quick. I felt somebody coming up on me on the right, so when it came to me, I kind of looked away, and it bounced off my hands.”

Whisenhunt called for the onside kick despite having enough timeouts to get the ball back if the defense held.

“I thought we had a good shot at it without their hands team on the field,” Whisenhunt said. “It just took a hard bounce. The scheme was there.”

Failing to recover the kick may have stalled the rally, but there were three plays in the second quarter that helped the Giants grab the lead.

The Cardinals went ahead 9-7 on a 4-yard touchdown run by Tim Hightower with 7:51 remaining in the second quarter, but punter Dirk Johnson muffed the hold, then missed a wide open Calais Campbell in the end zone to keep the lead at two points.

On the ensuing kickoff, Giants wide receiver Domenik Hixon slipped through the Arizona coverage team, racing down the left sideline 83 yards to the Cardinals 16-yard line. Antrel Rolle was the last player back, and saved a touchdown with a shoelace tackle.

It was Rackers’ second kickoff of the possession — Ahmad Bradshaw was stopped at the 21-yard line originally, but Matt Ware was offsides on the kick and the Giants made Rackers boot it again.

New York got a field goal out of the possession.

“The first kick, we had him bottled up pretty good,” Whisenhunt said. “When we had the offside penalty and had to re-kick it, it seemed to open a can of worms.”

Hixon did it again on the next Cardinals kickoff, returning it 68 yards to the 32-yard line.

The Giants scored a touchdown six plays later to take a 17-12 lead into halftime, despite totaling 39 fewer yards than Arizona before intermission.

“You can’t give them a short field to score points, because a good team will take advantage of that, and that’s what they did,” defensive end Bertrand Berry said.