New Redskin Look Befuddles the Eagles : NFC: Washington wins with three-back offense, 16-12. Cunningham gets rushing record, but Waters gets hurt.

The Redskins’ backfield was in almost constant motion Sunday, but there was nothing illegal about it. Instead of using their usual one-back strategy, the Redskins abandoned it in favor of a new-look backfield and ran to victory over the Philadelphia Eagles, 16-12.

The Redskins fell two yards short of becoming the first team in 14 games to rush for more than 100 yards on the ground against the Eagles. A fourth-period safety, which went in the books as a loss of four, dropped the Redskins to 98 yards on the ground.

The strategy--which had tight ends Ron Middleton, Don Warren or Terry Orr lining up in the backfield with Earnest Byner or Ricky Ervins--forced the Eagles to think of the tight ends as either pass blockers, blocking backs, ball carriers or potential pass receivers. The result: a second consecutive loss for the Eagles, who at 4-2 are tied for second with Washington in the NFC East.

“It bothered them, because they couldn’t lock in on any particular look,” offensive line coach Jim Hanifan said. “We were able to maneuver and get some good yardage out of that.”

Washington’s three-back set kept the Eagles off-balance and set up the Washington passing attack.

“We’re going to have downers,” Eagle Coach Rich Kotite said. “But this team has come back, and we’re going to come back.”

The Eagles got more bad news when strong safety Andre Waters suffered a broken left leg.

Given all the injuries on Washington’s offensive line, it seemed improbable the Redskins would run against Philadelphia. But the Redskins knew they had to do so in order to win.

“Once I saw the game plan--’run, run, run’--I knew we could,” guard Mark Schlereth said. “I knew we could power off the ball, put our heads down and move. It’s easier to be aggressive against a team like this. When you’re pass-blocking all the time, you’re in sad shape.”

Philadelphia’s Randall Cunningham, who broke Fran Tarkenton’s NFL record for rushing by a quarterback, had a less successful day passing. He threw for 207 yards, but was intercepted once and was sacked five times.

“You have to give the (Washington) defense credit,” Cunningham said. “They’re big, strong players, and they’ve played me eight years. They match up well against us--a lot of teams probably couldn’t do what they do.”

Cunningham had 39 yards rushing, giving him 3,683, nine better than Fran Tarkenton’s total. He broke the record on a six-yard gain late in the fourth period.

The Redskins scored on Mark Rypien’s 10-yard touchdown pass to Gary Clark and three field goals by Chip Lohmiller.

Washington Kelly Goodburn took a safety rather than punt out of the end zone with 2:57 left.