TEMPE, Ariz. -- There were 58 seconds on the clock, 84 yards of green grass in front of them and no timeouts left in their pocket.

It was a textbook situation for the Arizona Cardinals' play for overtime last Sunday night against Cincinnati. Nobody would have faulted quarterback Carson Palmer for taking a knee or Cardinals coach Bruce Arians for calling a couple of run plays to let Chris Johnson run out the clock.

But that’s not who Arians is as a coach.

He flipped the switch on the Cardinals’ two-minute drill despite there being less than half that amount of time left. He called three straight passing plays, all of which were completed. In 38 seconds, Arizona had advanced to the Cincinnati Bengals' 27-yard-line. Three plays later -- and with the help of a controversial penalty -- the Cardinals won 34-31 on a field goal with 6 seconds left.

“Some of the defensive guys were holding onto their ass,” Arians said. “Like, ‘What are you doing, Coach?’ They know me too well now, and I think they trust Carson, also.

“It’s a trust factor. Will you lose one? Possibly. But you’re not going to win one unless you try.”

It’s a philosophy Arians has nicknamed “no risk it, no biscuit.”

In three seasons, last Sunday’s drive was the second riskiest that Arians has called. In Week 1 of 2013, with the Cardinals down 27-24 with 40 seconds left, they started a drive, but it lasted only three plays and gained 9 yards. There have been other occasions in which Arians has called for a traditional two-minute drill and it has worked, such as against Philadelphia in Week 8 last season when Palmer threw a 75-yard touchdown to John Brown on the third play of the drive.

But Arians isn’t careless about taking risks. They are managed and they are calculated. A lot of his strategy depends on timeouts, he said.

“That’s the thing -- if you kneel down or run a draw and see what happens, the game’s over,” Arians said. “You roll the dice on overtime. I trust our guys to execute. Normally, with the first play, you’re not going to get a strong pass rush because they’re thinking draw and screen, and you get a chance to shoot one down the field and get a 20-yard gain and get rolling.

That’s what happened against Cincinnati. Palmer hit J.J. Nelson for 19 yards on the first play of the drive. Then, going no-huddle, Palmer hit Larry Fitzgerald for 18 yards, followed by a 20-yard pass to Fitzgerald again and the Cardinals were sitting on the Cincinnati 27 with 20 seconds left.

“You always know your number can be called on no matter what the score is,” Fitzgerald said. “You look at the games that we’ve played and had success [in], there’s no let up. It’s always going to be pushing the ball down the field. In the position that we were in last week on Sunday Night Football, I would say 50 percent of the coaches would have probably run the ball and play for overtime.

“That’s not something that [Arians] would ever do. He’s always going to have that mentality and we love that aggressive nature, and we want to play for a coach that does it like that.”

Johnson, who signed with the team in the middle of training camp, thinks there are only a “couple” of coaches in the league with enough gall to mimic Arians’ approach.

Taking risks has been part of Arians’ DNA long before he became the Cardinals’ coach in 2013.

Cardinals offensive coordinator Harold Goodwin had a front-row seat for it during the 2010 AFC Championship Game, when Arians was the Pittsburgh Steelers' offensive coordinator. On third-and-6 from the New York Jets' 40 with 2 minutes left, Arians called for a pass. A first down and the Steelers would go to the Super Bowl. A failed attempt and the Jets would get the ball back. Ben Roethlisberger hit Antonio Brown for 14 yards. First down. Ball game.

“He hasn’t changed. The thing about B.A., he’s never going to sit back,” Goodwin said. “He’s not going to sit back and take it. He’s always going to be aggressive. Even when I’m calling plays, [he’s said], ‘You’re being too passive, be more aggressive.’

“So, that’s a thing he lives by: being aggressive. Don’t sit back. If you’re going to lose, lose giving everything you got and don’t give them an opportunity to get the ball back.”

The first time the Cardinals learned about Arians’ mindset was during his first team meeting, Fitzgerald said. Arians told his team the offense would be about touchdowns or checkdowns.

“He’s going to throw the ball down the field,” Fitzgerald said. “He’s going to give guys opportunity.”

What was executed in the two-minute drill last week was the product of seven months' worth of practice. The Cardinals’ offense begins working on the two-minute drill during OTAs, practicing it six times during offseason workouts. During training camp, Arians’ goal was to work on it for another eight practices. But Arizona doesn’t physically run two-minute drills in practice because they exhaust players’ legs.

The Cards prepare for the two-minute drill in meetings, in which they watch “a lot of film of what happened throughout the league because we’re not going to change what we do.”

“It’s a big focal point because most games in this league are won in the last two minutes of the half and the end of the game,” Arians said.

When Arizona goes to its no-huddle offense, Palmer is the one calling the plays. When the offense gathers between plays, Arians dictates the play calling. So Palmer’s 18-yard pass to Fitzgerald on first-and-10 from the Cardinals' 35 was Palmer’s decision.

Just like learning the offensive scheme has been an ongoing process, the same goes for Palmer’s experience with Arians’ two-minute drill.

But he loves it.

“From a quarterback’s perspective, it’s great,” Palmer said. “But you have to learn how to play within that scheme. Just because shots are called, it doesn’t mean he wants shots thrown. You cannot throw one and get yelled at, and the best decision was to check it down.

“But that kind of pressure he puts on you, it makes you better. It makes you work for sure and I love being in that system.”