DATE: Monday, October 6, 1997               TAG: 9710060168

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C7   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Tom Robinson

DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA                      LENGTH:   68 lines

ROUTED REDSKINS NEED TO REGROUP

At least we know that monumental collapse the Washington Redskins pulled last season, from 7-1 to out of playoffs, cannot be repeated this season.

We know this because the Redskins had their lunch, dinner and protein-rich power drinks handed to them Sunday by the Philadelphia Eagles and lost their second game in five tries.

So with 7-1 out of the question, the Redskins, if they care to, are free to miss the playoffs this time with less flair.

Not to get too dramatic about it after a third of the season, but don't think they're above another flame out if the taint of what transpired on the fake South Philly turf lingers long.

This 24-10 rout by the desperate Eagles (2-3) over the apparently self-satisfied Redskins, who so outclassed Jacksonville a week ago, was thorough and complete - in a dominating sort of way.

In truth, it was Washington's worse loss to the Eagles since the infamous ``body bag'' game of 1990, when Buddy Ryan's merry thugs wreaked havoc and much physical harm in a 28-14 victory on a Monday night at Veterans Stadium.

Washington casualties were minimal this time, unless you count the fractured psyches of defenders who plunged from kings to road kill in a week. If you do, then 11 Redskins have to be comforting themselves with the consolation that, if they really aren't as good as they looked against Jacksonville, they can't be as inept as they were Sunday.

``Every week's a new week, it really is,'' their leader, defensive coordinator Mike Nolan, said with a shrug. ``If this was two steps down then, yeah, that would be significant and bother you. I'd like to think last week was two up, and I'd like to think this is just one down.''

Actually, there were two downs that demoralized the Redskins' defense all day; first and third. The Eagles owned those situations on the way to rolling up 449 yards of total offense, a full 200 more than Washington's average yield to date.

How bad was it? While the outcome was still in doubt, Philadelphia - a team with virtually no downfield threat, against a defense with eight men stacked to stifle the run - ate up 205 yards on 30 first-down plays, or nearly seven yards each time.

This is a huge number, and it isn't skewed by a couple of long gains, either. Of the 30 first downs, the Eagles gained at least six yards on 14 of them, which opened up to them a wonderful world of second-and-short possibilities.

``You want to be good on first down, because if you can predict the situation by getting somebody in second-and-long, you're ahead of the game,'' Nolan said. ``So we got a little behind there. But third down is really when you've got to stop them.''

No such luck. Coming in, the Eagles had converted 34 percent of their third downs into first downs. Sunday, they clicked 53 percent of the time (9 for 17), and scored two touchdowns to boot.

``They got great players, man,'' said Redskins defensive tackle Marc Boutte, who played under the weather. ``You're talking about Kevin Turner and Ricky Watters in the backfield, they're gonna hurt you. It's gonna happen against good teams like that.''

Watters did 104 yards on the ground, 36 in the air. Turner, the under-rated fullback, had 38 yards on three carries and 43 yards on four catches. If you're counting, that's half of Philadelphia's offensive output.

Yes, Boutte was ill and the other starting tackle, Chris Mims, was scratched because of an abdominal strain. That helps explain away some of it. But with Dallas incoming next Monday night, Nolan's issue has to be why Washington's entire interior got trampled, even as cornerbacks Darrell Green and Cris Dishman played well again on the outside.

``They were a team that was prepared for us,'' Boutte said.

That, if not some other scary things, could happen again.

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