Redskins Find Ways to Give One Away : NFC: Massey’s interceptions, Lohmiller’s missed field-goal try enable Cardinals to pull off 27-24 upset.

It was this kind of game:

--On the last play of a strange afternoon, Washington Redskin kicker Chip Lohmiller missed the game-tying field-goal attempt from the 40-yard line after getting a good snap, a proper spot and ideal blocking.

--On the three decisive plays of his worst afternoon in football, Redskin quarterback Mark Rypien threw three interceptions, two of them to Phoenix Cardinal cornerback Robert Massey, who ran the course both times--31 and 41 yards--to tie the NFL record for same-day touchdowns on intercepted passes.

And that’s how the previously winless Cardinals upset the heavily favored Redskins, 27-24, Sunday after Washington had opened a 17-0 halftime lead and stretched it to 24-6 in the third quarter.

“Well, I made some mistakes,” Rypien said. “I’ll remember this day. I need to play smarter.”

Said Massey: “(Cardinal Coach) Joe Bugel said we would get these guys. I didn’t think (Rypien) would throw the ball either time.”

Neither did the Redskins, who left Phoenix in a state of shock after falling to 2-2 in the NFC East, far behind the undefeated opponents in tonight’s game, the 3-0 Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys.

Only nine months ago, Rypien had been the most valuable player of a Super Bowl team.

In his first visit to Arizona since then he was outplayed by the backup quarterback of a mediocre team, Chris Chandler, who rose above mediocrity in the last few minutes to drive the 1-3 Cardinals 85 yards to the winning touchdown.

The Redskins, despite one of their worst second halves of Joe Gibbs’ era in Washington, still held a 24-20 lead when Chandler commenced firing at the Phoenix 15-yard line with 3:48 to play.

In the next three minutes, attacking Washington’s so-called prevent defense, he fired six times and completed all six, the last to reserve running back Larry Centers for the game-winning, nine-yard touchdown.

There was time enough thereafter for Rypien to move the Redskins into field goal position, and he moved them there on three completions. But their kicker, like all kickers, is a person who hits some and misses some, and in the clutch he blew it.

“They came out in the nickel look (five defensive backs) more than we expected,” said Chandler, who completed 21 of 31 passes for 196 yards on a day when Rypien, completing 12 of 28 for 258 yards, threw three scoring passes--but only one to a Redskin.

Gibbs, exonerating Rypien again, as he did after Washington had lost to Dallas on opening day, said: “We had them down, but they didn’t give up.”

Bugel, who used to coach for Gibbs in Washington, said of the Cardinals’ noisy locker room: “Everyone was crying. I’ve never seen such happiness, even after a (Redskin) Super Bowl win.”

It was Rypien’s three interceptions that changed a game that was getting to be a rout into, first, a nail-biter, and then an upset.

In action this year, Rypien has had the look of a passer who needs glasses. The three Redskins to whom he was throwing in Sun Devil Stadium, when he distributed his interceptions, were none of them remotely open.

And to throw it to closely guarded receivers on a day like this--when you’re far ahead and don’t really need a first down--is either inexcusable carelessness or symptomatic of a vision problem.

When, for instance, Cardinal free safety Michael Zordich made the turning-point interception in the second quarter--at a time when Washington, ahead 17-0, was driving for 24-0--he was standing all by himself in center field, covering nobody, where Rypien couldn’t have missed seeing him if he’d looked.

The ball, aimed for Gary Clark, was slightly overthrown. But if it had been slightly underthrown, the Cardinal covering Clark would have caught it.

In the fourth quarter, Rypien was passing to Art Monk and Ricky Sanders, respectively, when Massey twice broke in front of the speeding Redskins to field the ball.

Of Massey’s first interception, he said: “Monk was running a dash route (and) the ball was right in my lap.”

Of Massey’s next interception, Rypien said: “I saw him coming (just) as I threw the ball. He had tight coverage. But (on pass plays), you read different things.”

Leading by 11 points in the fourth quarter, a prudent passer, noting tight coverage, reads only one thing and and plays throwaway. Instead, Rypien played giveaway.