Redskins Beat the Bills, 37-24, in Super Bowl

The Washington Redskins hogged the spotlight and continued a National Football Conference tradition in Super Bowl XXVI, rolling over the error-plagued Buffalo Bills, 37-24, Sunday at the Minneapolis Metrodome.

It was the Redskins’ third Super Bowl victory in 10 years and the eighth in a row for the NFC. And it could have been worse, as the Redskins let two early scoring chances get away in the game before a crowd of 63,130.

Quarterback Mark Rypien was a question mark coming into the biggest game of his career, but he was an exclamation point Sunday. Rypien completed 18 of 33 passes for 292 yards and two touchdowns. He used his “posse” of wide receivers--Art Monk, Gary Clark and Ricky Sanders--for most of the damage.

For his efforts, Rypien was named the game’s most valuable player.

“Early on, they put some pressure on me,” Rypien said. “But they didn’t get to me. We were still able to make some plays.”

Gerald Riggs ran for two touchdowns and Chip Lohmiller kicked three field goals for the rest of the scoring, but the Bills had a big part in their undoing.

Buffalo, which lost Super Bowl XXV last year to the New York Giants, 20-19, when Scott Norwood missed a 47-yard field goal in the final seconds, made mistake after mistake.

The tone was set early when Bills’ tailback Thurman Thomas, the most valuable player in the National Football League, had to sit out the first two plays because he could not find his helmet.

“Normally, I put my helmet at the end of the bench,” Thomas said. “This time somebody moved it, and everybody was moving around and didn’t know where it was.”

The day did not get much better for Thomas. He rushed 10 times for only 13 yards, 121 less than in last year’s Super Bowl.

Buffalo receivers dropped passes, Jim Kelly was sacked five times and intercepted four times. Andre Reed was called for a penalty that knocked Buffalo out of field goal range as the Redskins ran to a 24-0 lead and never were threatened.

So it went for the Bills as they joined the Minnesota Vikings and the Denver Broncos as back-to-back Super Bowl losers.

Kelly did set a Super Bowl record, throwing 58 passes. But he was pressured throughout and completed only 28 for 275 yards.

Kelly broke the previous record of 50 attempts by Miami’s Dan Marino in another losing effort against San Francisco in 1985.

“We played a team that was better,” Buffalo Coach Marv Levy said. “They showed it.”

The Redskins had a chance to take a two-touchdown lead in the first quarter, but the game was scoreless after 15 minutes. Washington had apparently scored on a two-yard pass from Rypien to Monk, but the call was reversed on replay, the first time a reversal has taken away a touchdown in the Super Bowl.

Washington then botched a 19-yard field goal attempt when Jeff Rutledge could not handle the snap, and the teams traded interceptions.

Then came the second quarter.

Four years ago, in Washington’s last trip to the Super Bowl, the Redskins scored a record 35 points in the second quarter en route to a 42-10 victory over the Broncos.

This time they scored less than half of that--but it was enough for a 17-0 lead.

Lohmiller kicked a 34-yard field goal, and Rypien hit Earnest Byner for a 10-yard touchdown play. Darrell Green picked off Kelly, and Riggs scored from one yard out for a 17-0 lead in less than six minutes.

The Bills kept making mistakes. Tight end Keith McKeller dropped what would have been a big gain, and wide receiver Don Beebe dropped a pass on the goal line.

Buffalo had one last chance in the first half, but when Brad Edwards climbed on Reed’s back to break up a pass and no interference was called, Reed was given a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for slamming his helmet to the ground. That took the Bills out of field goal range.

It did not take long for the Redskins to increase their lead in the second half. Linebacker Kurt Gouveia intercepted Kelly’s pass on the first play of the third quarter and returned it to the Buffalo two-yard line. Riggs took it from there, cruising into the end zone to give Washington a 24-0 lead.

The Bills made it 24-10 with a Norwood field goal and a one-yard scoring run by Thomas, but the Redskins were not to be denied. Rypien led a well-executed drive and made a perfect pass to Clark for a 30-yard touchdown, giving Washington a 31-10 lead with 1:24 left in the third quarter.

The Bills should have known it would not be their day when they fouled up the opening kickoff. Brad Daluiso kicked the ball halfway into the end zone, only to find out that referee Jerry Markbreit had not given him the OK to kick.

So the Bills had to kick over.

The way it turned out, they would have liked to play the whole game over.

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