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The Arizona Cardinals blew a 17-point lead to the lowly Detroit Lions and needed to make a pressure-packed play in the closing minutes to avoid an embarrassing defeat.

Kurt Warner threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Anquan Boldin with 1:54 left, lifting Arizona to a 31-24 win over Detroit on Sunday.

"A win's a win," Warner said. "We are one step closer to our goal." Arizona (9-5) took the final step later in the day, clinching the NFC West when San Francisco lost at Philadelphia. The Cardinals have won consecutive division titles for the first time since 1974-75.

"We're not happy with how we played," Larry Fitzgerald said. "We know we need to improve, but the opportunity to win double digits, I don't know the last time a Cardinals team was able to do that.

It wasn't in Fitzgerald's lifetime.

The Cardinals haven't won 10 games since 1976.

The Lions (2-12) had the ball with 1:46 left with a chance to come back, but gained just seven yards, and lost their fourth straight game.

Detroit coach Jim Schwartz wasn't encouraged that his team competed more than it did in a 48-3 loss last week at Baltimore.

"We could've jogged out to the field today and it would've been a better effort," Schwartz said.

Arizona led 17-0 at halftime, then let the Lions make it 17-all in the third quarter and 24-all with 3:48 left.


Scoreboard
Final 1 2 3 4 T
Arizona (9-5-0) « 7 10 0 14 31
Detroit (2-12-0) 0 0 17 7 24
Game Leaders
Cardinals Lions
Pass: K. Warner (23-37, 233) D. Stanton (10-19, 72)
Rush: B. Wells (17-110) M. Morris (17-126)
Rec: A. Boldin (6-72) C. Johnson (3-35)