GLENDALE, Ariz. — A critical replay reversal went the way of the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, helping them end a two-game losing streak with a 17-14 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs at University of Phoenix Stadium on Sunday.

A week after taking flak for not throwing a challenge flag in a tough loss at Atlanta, Cardinals coach Bruce Arians tossed his red hanky Sunday, praying he was right.

Gambling with his last timeout in a close game, it turned out he was correct, and a red zone receiving first down by the Chiefs was reversed into a fumble recovery by the Cardinals.

The play prevented the Chiefs from taking the lead or kicking a game-tying field goal.

“At that point in time, the timeout isn’t worth a damn thing. If we lose this challenge, we’re losing a timeout. The challenge was huge and it was the correct call,” Arians said.

The win gives the Cardinals (10-3) back-to-back, double-digit win seasons for the first time since 1975-76 and kept them perfect at home this season at 7-0.

“It’s great. This is what we needed to do,” said Arizona quarterback Drew Stanton, whose third-quarter, 26-yard scoring strike to wide receiver Jaron Brown proved to be the game-winner. “This is playoff mentality. B.A. (Arians) addressed that on Wednesday. He said that we need to try and be 1-0 every single week. We can’t look ahead and we can’t look behind.”

With running back Andre Ellington out for the season with a sports hernia and veteran running back Michael Bush cut by the team on Friday, the Cardinals activated running back Kerwynn Williams from the practice squad and made him their featured back against the Chiefs.

He carried 19 times Sunday for 100 yards to become Arizona’s first 100-yard rusher of the season.

“He did a wonderful job. He was imitating (Chiefs running back) Jamaal Charles in practice on the scout team and then goes for a hundred in the game. That’s storybook stuff,” Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald said.

The Chiefs (7-6) thought they were driving toward a possible victory with less than six minutes remaining in the game when quarterback Alex Smith hit tight end Travis Kelce over the middle for what appeared to be an 18-yard gain and a huge first down.

Kelce somersaulted and, initially, it looked as though he flipped the football forward on purpose as he signaled for a first down. But Cardinals defensive backs Deone Bucannon and Justin Bethel were convinced Kelce had fumbled on the play.

After some quick consultation with his coaches up in the press box, Arians agreed and challenged the ruling on the field. He was correct after a lengthy review, and the Cardinals held onto the ball long enough to snap their two-game slide.

Last week against the Falcons, Arians didn’t challenge a long reception made by Julio Jones even though replays clearly showed the receiver had only one foot in bounds on the play.

“From my vision, I thought he regained possession of the ball,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said of Kelce. “But I’m not making that call. You’ve got to keep the ball high and tight in that area and we have to make sure … I can’t. Go on to something besides the officials. I don’t have anything good to say.”

The officials took a Chiefs touchdown away earlier in the game when tight end Anthony Fasano’s score was nullified due to an offensive pass interference call.

“Tough play,” Fasano said. “We had to scramble. Alex made a great play to get it to me, but that call didn’t go our way.”

The Chiefs had only a minute left to try to get kicker Cairo Santos into field-goal position, but the game ended when Smith’s pass to wide receiver Jason Avant in Kansas City territory fell incomplete.

Trailing 14-9, Arizona took its first lead of the game with 3:26 left in the third quarter when Stanton hit Brown for the go-ahead touchdown. Arians elected to go for the two-point conversion, and Stanton connected with tight end John Carlson on a quick screen to make it 17-14 Cardinals.

Stanton finished the game 15 of 30 for 239 yards and one touchdown with no interceptions.

What the Cardinals said:

“Tenth win is a big win. Anytime you get to double digits, it speaks volumes about the leadership and the players that we have and the roster that (GM) Steve (Keim) has built for us. The coaching staff has done a great job. We’re not settled with 10 this year, though. This team I think has something special about it and we’ve got a really tough stretch down the road, but I like where we’re at.” — Head coach Bruce Arians.

What the Chiefs said:

“We didn’t play good enough. We shot ourselves in the foot. I don’t think they beat us. We beat ourselves. … I just feel like for the past couple weeks we’ve been shooting ourselves in the foot. We have to stop beating ourselves.” — Linebacker Justin Houston.

What we learned about the Cardinals:

1. They may have finally discovered a running game thanks to practice squad promoted Kerwynn Williams, who ran for 100 yards on 19 carries in his first game for the Cardinals. It was Arizona’s first 100-yard output by a tailback this season. “I didn’t know what my role was going to be. I just wanted to be prepared for whatever it was,” Williams said. With Andre Ellington out for the rest of the season — he will undergo surgery in Philadelphia to repair a sports hernia — Williams could be a difference-maker down the stretch for a running game that has been non-existent all season.

2. Coach Bruce Arians isn’t afraid to gamble, which he did in the fourth quarter by challenging a call and getting a huge reversal from a Kansas City first down into a Kansas City turnover. “Hey, that’s a gutsy coach,” cornerback Justin Bethel said. “That’s his personality. Whatever he believes in is what he’s going to do. He definitely saw it was a fumble and it worked out for us.”

–CB Antonio Cromartie suffered an Achilles’ tendon injury in the fourth quarter and ha to be carted to the locker room, but coach Bruce Arians doesn’t believe Cromartie ruptured it. “They are doing ultrasounds and things on it, but it’s not his Achilles’,” Arians said. “His Achilles’ looks in good shape, so we’ll keep opur fingers crossed for him there.”

–WR Larry Fitzgerald returned after missing two games with a sprained left MCL and caught four passes for 34 yards. “I was good enough to go in,” Fitzgerald said. “In December football, we need all hands on deck. There are a lot of guys in this locker room that are banged up and hurting. You just have to fight through.”

–WR Jaron Brown atoned for dropping a wide-open touchdown pass in Seattle two weeks ago by hauling in the game-clinching 26-yard field goal Sunday against the Chiefs. “It always feels good to get a touchdown, period,” Brown said. “I had a short memory of that last one, but yeah, it definitely feels good to get in there.”

What we learned about the Chiefs:

1. Untimely penalties have been an issue for the Chiefs during their three-game losing skid and on Sunday, it bit them again as they were flagged nine times for 75 yards, including one that wiped out a Kansas City touchdown. “Nine penalties is absolutely ridiculous for a football team and everything else that went with it. … I’ll take a look at them to see. It was too many for sure. Whatever my opinion of it, it was too many.”

2. The Chiefs still haven’t had a touchdown reception by a single one of their wide receivers and after 13 games, it’s looking like the may very well indeed go the entire season without one from a wideout. The Cardinals, though, did a nice job taking away any deep threats other than one long completion to Jason Avant. “They mix it up,” quarterback Alex Smith said. “They’re not your typical defense at the end that kind of sits back in cover two and prevent. They mix it up. They pressure a bunch. They’re pressing, though, outside. It’s tough, necessarily with the pressure sometimes. It’s kind of a big risk and gamble type of deal, but you’ve got to be able to hit it. You’ve got to be able to counteract to it, counterpunch it. We didn’t do it, especially there in the last drive, obviously.”

–RB Jamaal Charles scored a pair of touchdowns, but he missed portions of Sunday’s game with a slight ankle sprain and later, back spasms, according to coach Andy Reid. “I just got twisted up. Everything got twisted up,” said Charles, who was hurt during the second quarter when he was gang tackled.

–LB Justin Houston, who entered Sunday’s game leading the league with 14 sacks, added two more against the Cardinals. After one of them he pulled up his jersey to reveal an Eric Berry T-shirt that he wore in support of his sickened teammate. “Me wearing that number and putting it on my shirt, I’m playing with him on the field.”

–TE Travis Kelce wasn’t among the Chiefs who thought the referees got it wrong on his fourth-quarter fumble. “I thought I regained control of the ball, but you can’t go back in time,” he said. “I fumbled the ball. It was called a fumble and I’m just going to have to live with that, comeback next week and help my team win.”