Rypien Rights Redskins’ Course : Two 4th-Quarter Touchdown Passes Lift Washington

Late in the third quarter Sunday, the Redskins suddenly were a well-foiled football machine--and the formerly faithful at RFK Stadium had had enough. The idea of losing to certain NFL birds, the Eagles for instance, is tolerable, but not the flock doing all that damage.

The booing began as an irritated ripple, when Mark Rypien’s third-down pass was batted down, then increased in intensity when Ralf Mojsiejenko’s punt wobbled a pathetic 29 yards and the Cardinals scored almost immediately, on a 44-yard run.

Having limped into this battle, the Cardinals somehow were getting better as one after another fine player got sidelined with an injury. Their passing actually improved after Roy Green broke his clavicle.

“It still wasn’t like we were playing the Little Sisters of the Blind,” Rypien insisted. And as it developed, all he needed to improve on at game’s end was his cliches.

When matters became 21-13 ugly, when the crowd started to feel the wooziness of a sixth straight home loss coming on, the Redskins just about drew a line near midfield and declared: “No more.”

It was appropriate that Rypien was mainly responsible for the Redskins’ comeback victory, with his arm and also his legs, because he’d helped set up that predicament a couple of quarters earlier.

Strange team, these Redskins. They know football is a game of inches; they also are more likely to gain 900 inches at a time than 36. On third and short, they still come up short too often.

First and goal at the Phoenix 4 on the Redskins’ first possession became a chip-shot field goal by Chip Lohmiller. Next time down the field, Rypien passed for a two-yard touchdown. But serious trouble, a probable halftime lead crumbling into a one-point deficit, started when Rypien once more couldn’t hit Donnie Warren from about spitting distance.

Unlike last week, Rypien did not overthrow Warren. He was low this time, hitting a bloated fencepost named Jim Wahler who had gotten near Warren’s path on first and 10 at the Cardinals 19.

Ahead by 13-7 a moment before Rypien let loose of a ball better tucked to his chest, the Redskins soon were down 14-13 after J.T. Smith made the second and third of at least a half-dozen spectacular Cardinals catches.

That may be why Rypien relied on his legs on another critical play, one that went the Redskins’ way early in the fourth quarter. He was scrambling again, though lots of uncluttered field loomed this time.

There was a choice as Rypien came close to the line of scrimmage: flip the ball about 32 inches to wide-open Earnest Byner or keep it. Byner was the more reliable runner, but Rypien had learned his lesson about passes seemingly impossible to miss.

He ordered Byner to block, which he did, flipping linebacker Ken Harvey feathers over beak so Rypien could scamper 15 yards to the Phoenix 15. This also ended with less than what the Redskins wanted, a field goal instead of a touchdown, but Rypien had reestablished a positive presence.

Still in only his 11th start as a pro, he wanted to act as unfazed during this rally as the grizzled guys around him in the huddle. Which he did. Down the stretch, it was a Zippin’ Rypien that riddled the Cards.

A pair of touchdown passes gave the Redskins’ defense a lead it couldn’t quite squander in the final seconds; a 39-yard pass to Art Monk that ended short of the end zone might have been Rypien’s finest effort.

For ever so long, Rypien has missed on long passes down the right sideline. A buddy has been open; the pass has been achingly close at times, though still off target.

Monk had run a bit deeper into NFL history earlier, catching the 600th pass of his career. This time, gliding along the right sideline, he had a step on cornerback Cedric Mack. And Rypien was in his Johnny Unitas mode.

That hummer could not have been thrown better. From close to where Monk finally came to earth, Rypien switched programs, this time becoming Mark The Quick.

Near the right sideline from the Cardinals 12, Rypien seemed about to be grabbed by 259-pound David Galloway. What Galloway clutched was an armful of air, Rypien sidestepping him and firing complete in the end zone to Monk.

As he should have, Rypien praised his blockers and runners and catchers and added, honestly: “They (the Cardinals) made a couple more mistakes than we did.”

If points were given for pluck, the Cardinals would have earned a bundle. With a remade offensive line, they still surrendered just one official sack (Charles Mann had Gary Hogeboom on the final play, but not before he lateraled the ball); Smith’s acrobatics will linger in cornerback Brian Davis’s mind nearly as long as the Giants’ Odessa Turner.

“Coming in,” Rypien said, “We wanted to protect our own backyard.” He called letting down fans that yesterday included Vice President Dan Quayle “a tragedy.”

The booing, Rypien said, “doesn’t bother me at all. That’s what fans are for. But we’re human.” Three-and-two human, sporadic, erratic and dramatic, with a chance to join the Giants in the first-place NFC East attic by dusk next Sunday.