Rypien Has Redskins Back in Super Bowl Race : NFC: He has two touchdown passes, only three incompletions in 28-10 victory over Giants.

The Washington Redskins are back in the Super Bowl picture.

Mark Rypien has suddenly found some consistency and the Redskins are starting to score, which isn’t a bad combination when you have a good defense to go along with it.

Rypien threw two touchdown passes and Ernest Byner ran for 100 yards and two scores as the defending Super Bowl champion Redskins defeated the New York Giants, 28-10, Sunday.

With three weeks left in the season, Washington (8-5) controls its destiny as far as making the playoffs.

The Giants (5-8), losers of four in a row, will be eliminated for the second consecutive year by either losing once more or if Washington and Philadelphia each win once.

“This was one of our better all-around games,” Coach Joe Gibbs said after the Redskins gained a measure of revenge for a 24-7 loss last month.

“I hope this is a sign of us coming together at the right time.”

The Redskins, who have been inconsistent after a 5-2 start, had 22 first downs, held the ball for 35:33 and outgained New York, 393 yards to 165.

A big part of the offense was success on third-down plays. Washington converted eight of 11, gaining 123 yards on those plays.

Rypien, who came into the game ranked last among NFC quarterbacks, completed 15 of 18 passes for 216 yards and was not sacked. He threw a 20-yard scoring pass to Terry Orr during the third quarter after the Giants got to within 14-10, then sealed the victory with a 42-yard scoring pass play to Art Monk.

That was Monk’s only catch, allowing him to extend his streak of catching at least one pass per game to 145.

What made Rypien’s performance so impressive was that all of his passes were catchable. Ricky Sanders dropped Rypien’s first pass. The other two were simply thrown too hard for Ricky Ervins and Monk to handle.

“When you give Ryp the kind of time we were able to give him today, he can do that against anyone,” said Pro Bowl tackle Jim Lachey, who returned to the lineup last week after being sidelined with a knee injury.