Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians subtly accused the Dolphins of cheating in last Sunday’s game, and one member of Miami’s coaching staff is not about to ignore the allegation.
In an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio Tuesday night, Arians discussed the torrential rain and the special teams blunders that came back to haunt Arizona. Kicker Chandler Catanzaro missed an extra point and a field goal early in the game before having an extra point blocked in the fourth quarter, which the Dolphins returned the other way for two points to take a 23-15 lead.
On the missed extra point after Arizona’s first touchdown, Arians claims the timing of the snap was thrown off by a Dolphins player simulating the snap count.
“We had a situation where somebody yelled out a snap count and we snapped an extra point early and missed the first extra point,” he said.
Arians then clarified that he was referring to a Dolphins player, which would be illegal.
On Wednesday, Dolphins special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi fired back at Arians.
“To be honest with you, I don’t know which of the three he was talking about, because [Cantazaro] missed three,” Rizzi said, per Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald. “The very first one, they had three guys jump offsides, so the play really should have been shut down by the officials. Go back and watch the play — their long snapper, left guard and left tackle all moved and they really should have shut the play down, so I don’t know if that got their rhythm off.”
Arians has never been one to hide his feelings, but his frustrations seem to be getting the best of him in recent weeks. He also said previously that he found it “odd” how it rained more when the Cardinals had the ball — a comment Rizzi was happy to bring up.
“We did our normal field-goal block procedure, so I was a little taken back by (the accusation),” Rizzi said. “Other than me making it rain when they had the ball, there was nothing we did that was illegal.”
With his once-NFC favorite team just 5-7-1 on the season and rumors about his future swirling, you can understand why Arians has been irritated. That said, he came off as a little petty by publicly accusing the Dolphins of gamesmanship.
