GLENDALE, Ariz. — Bruce Arians wanted to show that his team could win a close game. The Arizona Cardinals gave him one.

The Cardinals barely held off luckless Baltimore on Monday night, 26-18, clinching the win with Tony Jefferson’s interception in the end zone with 6 seconds to play.

“To be there and to kind of be nervous,” Arizona quarterback Carson Palmer said, “and to have those jitterbugs on the sidelines as you’re waiting, it’s good to have that feeling and come out and win.”

Arizona kept a grip on its NFC West lead, going to 5-2, while the Ravens added to their worst start in franchise history, falling to 1-6. The eight-point loss to Arizona was the most one-sided of their defeats.

“We probably didn’t play well enough to win the football game,” Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco said, “but we are always in them. It is going to be a fight down to the end and we are not giving up.”

Arizona’s Chris Johnson rushed for 122 yards, including a 26-yard touchdown run.

But his most memorable came when he landed on top of the belly of 335-pound Brandon Williams, then got up and kept running for a 62-yard gain.

Baltimore coach John Harbaugh said the whistle didn’t need to blow, the play should have been ruled dead because progress had stopped.

“The forward progress was stopped,” Harbaugh said. “If you hit him in that situation, then you’re going to get fined and penalized. He was stopped.”