TEMPE, Ariz. -- A last-minute victory. A late-season rush. This all must seem familiar to the Arizona Cardinals.

	After an awful start Sunday, Jake Plummer was brilliant in the fourth quarter of the Cardinals' win over the Eagles.

Last year, the Cardinals won their final three games, all on the last play, to make the playoffs for the first time in 16 years.

This year, Arizona started 2-6, but after the Cardinals' first four-game winning streak since 1988, capped by Sunday's 21-17 comeback victory over Philadelphia, the Cards are in position for another late-season run.

"This year, we've started out in a hole, and we've had to fight every week to try to get out of that hole," coach Vince Tobin said. "It's been a task, there's no question about that, but we can't take any deep breaths. We've got to continue to battle on."

If the Cards pull even with the Redskins, they would hold the tiebreaker over every other team in the division with three games to go.

Depleted by injuries, players who left as free agents and others who were contract holdouts, the Cardinals staggered out of the gate.

Tobin's even-keeled, no-panic approach persuaded his team that the season was not lost.

"It is very difficult when everything is falling apart around you," Tobin said, "but I think as a coach you can't lose sight of where you're going, and you can't lose sight of who's looking at you. You've got to stay positive with them and make them realize that if they continue to battle, that we do have a chance."

With Jake Plummer out with a broken ring finger, backup Dave Brown directed a victory over Detroit. Then came consecutive victories over NFC East opponents Dallas, New York and Philadelphia.

With a victory at Washington, the Cardinals would finish 6-2 against the NFC East. Arizona hasn't won five in a row in 22 years.

Through it all this season, the defense has been a constant, almost always playing well to keep the team close and give the erratic offense a chance.

"We'd definitely be one-and-something without our defense," wide receiver Frank Sanders said. "I don't think our offense has come out and shown in any respect that we could carry this team. The defense is carrying us, but in this last four to five weeks, we've been working together, and we've been helping each other."

The defensive players never complained about the inept offense.

"It's just the makeup of this team, the character of this team," said linebacker Rob Fredrickson, who had 12 tackles in Sunday's 21-17 victory over Philadelphia and leads the team with 119½ tackles this season. "The guys aren't quitters or finger-pointers."

Tobin credits a defensive line made up largely of players who either weren't drafted or were taken in the late rounds.

When the line stops the run, it opens the way for Simeon Rice and Eric Swann, two of the game's best pass rushers. Swann played a season-high 45 snaps on Sunday as he works his way back from two knee surgeries that sidelined him for a year.

Plummer returned to rally the team to victory in the second half against New York. On Sunday against Philadelphia, he was horrible for three quarters, then directed two touchdown drives in the fourth. It was the 11th time in his three seasons, and the fourth time against the Eagles, that he rallied his team from a fourth-quarter deficit or tie.

The sputtering offense remains a major concern.

"We've got to be able to run the ball more consistently," Tobin said. "We've run it in particular games, but we haven't consistently ran it well enough, and we've got to be able to throw the ball more consistently."

Luck was on Arizona's side on Sunday in a game the Cards know they probably should have lost.

"We fumbled the ball four times and only lost one of them," Tobin said, "and we had another four or five passes that probably should have been intercepted. You can't win consistently doing that."

The offense might get a boost this week with the possible return of running back Michael Pittman, out for three games with turf toe. Andre Wadsworth, who has missed the entire four-game streak after undergoing arthroscopic surgery, also could be back.

They will find the mood a whole lot better when they get back.

"There's more energy, there's more excitement, there's more togetherness," Sanders said. "A lot of little things have come together."