SUPER BOWL XXVI / WASHINGTON REDSKINS 37, BUFFALO BILLS 24 : Redskins Simply Let ‘er Ryp : Game: Washington quarterback passes for two touchdowns in 37-24 victory over Buffalo and is MVP.

In a game that annually humbles heroes and melts the reputations of stars, Mark Rypien raised himself to meet the moment, leaving Super Bowl XXVI a giant after entering it considerably prone to mortal error.

Matched against a far more glamorous quarterback, dared to throw the ball by a Buffalo defense eager to see him stumble, Rypien passed for 292 yards and two touchdowns to lead his Washington Redskins to a runaway 37-24 Super Bowl victory over the twice-fallen Bills Sunday.

When he was under fire, he remained confident. When he was hit, he climbed back up. When he was asked to deliver, Mark Rypien came through.

With the huge help of a Redskin defense that for three quarters befuddled Buffalo’s vaunted no-huddle offense, the man who couldn’t win The Big One won The Big One.

“Well, no one can say, ‘He couldn’t win the big game,’ because if there’s a bigger game than this one, no one’s told me about it,” said Rypien, who was 18 for 33 and was voted most valuable player. “If there is, I want to try go win that one, too.”

This one will be enough for the Redskins, who gave Coach Joe Gibbs his third Super Bowl victory in four tries and extended the National Football Conference’s Super Bowl winning streak to eight.

Rypien is the third quarterback Gibbs has won a Super Bowl with, following Joe Theismann and Doug Williams.

“I think you can put ‘Rip’ right there with all those quarterbacks who have won Super Bowls,” said receiver Art Monk, who played with both Williams and Theismann. “Why wouldn’t you after tonight?”

The Bills, who spent the days leading up to this game competing with one another for attention, become only the third team--joining the Denver Broncos and Minnesota Vikings--to lose back-to-back Super Bowls.

They lost last year’s to the New York Giants by a missed field goal with seconds to play. This year’s they lost overwhelmingly to a team on a mission, blessed with a quarterback gaining stature with every passing day.

“I’m sure they thought they could rattle him, since he’s really never been tested in this kind of atmosphere,” said Monk, who teamed with receiver Gary Clark for a combined 14 receptions for 227 yards. “Maybe he’d get jittery or something. But he never did. He did everything the coaches could have ever asked of him.”

Even though Rypien coasted through the season without a bad game, the Bills said they wanted to put the game in his hands by loading their defense to stop the run. They left the clear implication that he would blow it if given the chance.

Rypien, as usual, laid low in the days leading up to the game, preferring, along with the rest of his team, to save his thunder for more meaningful moments, for the football field, for history.

On the second play from scrimmage, he was smacked hard to the ground by linebacker Darryl Talley.

“I kind of like getting contact early--you know, feeling the action early,” Rypien said. “I just got up and said, ‘Here we go.’ ”

There they went. After a crazy-quilt, turnover-plagued scoreless first quarter, Rypien proved the Bills’ strategy wrong by leading Washington to 24 consecutive points in the second and third quarters.

Given one more challenge, Rypien felt the need to step forward again.

“I’m sure he did,” said Clark, who caught the second of Rypien’s touchdown passes. “Mark’s met every challenge placed in front of him this year. He came through when he had to. He made a lot of big plays when he had to make them. That’s why he’s the MVP of the game.”

Said Rypien: “It’s just good to know that when I had my chance to help the team in a really big game, that’s what I did.”

Then, as further testimony to his quiet, unassuming style, he felt it necessary to apologize to reporters because he wasn’t as emotional as he thought he should be.

But this was not an overly emotional game. It was decided in those handful of minutes it took Washington to take the 24-0 lead, and after that, everything was a long lead-in to the Redskins’ coronation.

When it was over, Rypien’s counterpart, Jim Kelly, had tied a Super Bowl record with four interceptions--two of them by safety Brad Edwards--and league MVP Thurman Thomas had gained only 13 yards in 10 carries.

“We had a good variety of things in our game plan,” said Washington cornerback Darrell Green, who had one interception. “We had everything you could think of. It was like a pizza with olives and onions and green peppers and everything you can think of. We dished it out with everything we had.”

The no-huddle offense was lost in a sea of Redskin substitutions, zone coverages and blitzing linebackers from all sides. Kelly finished 28 for a Super Bowl-record 58 passes for 275 yards and was sacked five times.

“We wanted to stop the run with Thomas--that was everything early--then we wanted to get pressure on Kelly, and neither was a factor,” linebacker Andre Collins said.

Said Bill center Kent Hull: “It got embarrassing at times.”

The Redskins’ barrage, sharply reminiscent, if not nearly as dominating as their 35-0 second-quarter shower over Denver four years ago in their last appearance in a Super Bowl, began early in the second quarter with a 34-yard Chip Lohmiller field goal.

On their next possession, Rypien finished off a 51-yard drive with a 10-yard touchdown pass to running back Earnest Byner. Two plays later, Kelly’s pass was intercepted by Edwards, and soon Gerald Riggs was scoring a one-yard touchdown.

At halftime, Washington led, 17-0, and Buffalo, the highest-scoring and best-rushing offense in the league this year, became the first team to be shut out in the first half of a Super Bowl in 10 years while being held to all of eight rushing yards.

“I did have a slight flashback,” said Clark, comparing this second-quarter mini-explosion to the big one in 1988.

Buffalo’s best chance at erasing its zero on the scoreboard was when nose tackle Jeff Wright had a big piece of Byner behind the Redskin goal line for an apparent safety. But Byner struggled free just enough to fall beyond the goal line.

Then, on the first play of the third quarter, the Redskins, known for their long hours of preparation, unleashed a defensive play they scripted on the bus ride to the game Sunday.

Assistant head coach-defense Richie Petitbon decided to send linebacker Collins on a blitz up the middle. He got to Kelly, who threw a duck that was intercepted by linebacker Kurt Gouveia and returned to the Buffalo two-yard line.

It was 24-0, and the strains of Gloria Estefan’s halftime concert were still echoing through the Metrodome.

“The whole second half is kind of fuzzy right now,” Kelly said. “I’m sure it will come back if I watch films, which I doubt that I will.”

The Bills scored, at last, on their next possession, keyed by a 43-yard floater from Kelly to Don Beebe.

But the frustration would continue. Beebe dropped a touchdown pass two plays later, Kelly missed receiver James Lofton on the next play and Coach Marv Levy opted for a small moral victory over going for a touchdown on fourth down. He settled for a 21-yard Scott Norwood field goal.

Buffalo finally scored its first touchdown six minutes later, but Washington put it away on a drive that echoed so many past efficient Redskin drives to put games away. Rypien led Washington on an 11-play, 79-yard touchdown march that ended with a 30-yard pass from Rypien to Clark. It erased 4:34 from the clock and removed any doubt from the final result.

And any doubts about Mark Rypien were answered long before that.

“What more can the man do?” asked Clark, finally finding a question Rypien’s performance Sunday could not answer.