Dolphins fire back after Bruce Arians accuses them of cheating

Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians wasn’t happy with the Miami Dolphins’ tactics on special teams, and accused the team of barking out snap counts that caused kicker Chandler Catanzaro to miss an extra point.

Dolphins special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi fired back at those accusations Wednesday, saying he was offended by Arians’ comments.

“I can tell you that we didn’t we didn’t do anything illegal, so I’m kind of taken back by it, and quite frankly, a little bit offended by it, because it’s kind of accusing us of cheating, really, to be honest with you,” Rizzi said, via the Miami Herald. “I was a little bit offended by it.”

According to Arians, a Dolphins player caused Catanzaro to miss a kick in the first quarter that would’ve tied the score, 7-7.

“We had a situation where someone yelled out a snap count — we snapped an extra point early and missed the first extra point,” Arians said on SiriusXM NFL Radio on Tuesday.

When asked if that was a legal move by the Dolphins, Arians only replied, “No.”

“To be honest with you, I don’t know which of the three he was talking about, because [Cantazaro] missed three,” Rizzi said. “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.”

It’s not the first time Arians has said the Cardinals didn’t get a fair shake. He previously accused the Seattle Seahawks of cheating on special teams.

In Week 7, Seahawks linebacker Bruce Wagner hurdled the Cardinals offensive line to block a field goal and Arians said he wanted an explanation from the NFL about the legality of that “bullshit.”

Arians also said that the rain in Miami only came when Arizona was on offense, bogging down the unit and forcing more turnovers in the 26-23 loss.

“Other than me making it rain when they had the ball, there was nothing we did that was illegal,” Rizzi said.

Catanzaro is near the bottom of the NFL with a 76.2 field goal percentage and 90.6 percent success rate on extra points. The loss dropped the Cardinals to 5-7-1 and essentially closed the door on a late push for the postseason.