Redskins

The Washington Redskins, getting the kind of break that never seemed to fall their way over the last three years, needed a controversial call to hold off the supposedly hapless New York Jets last night, 31-16, at RFK Stadium. It was the Redskins' (4-1) fourth win in a row, their longest streak since their 1991 Super Bowl season. For the Jets (0-5), it was an especially bitter ninth consecutive loss. The turning - and debating - point came with 8:01 remaining and the Redskins leading, 24-16.

Lucy puts the ball down and Charlie Brown works himself into a frenzy preparing to kick it. That's sort of the position fantasy owners find themselves in when trying to figure out whether to play up one of Mike Shanahan's running backs. The minute the Redskins' coach tees up Tim Hightower, Ryan Torain comes along. The minute Torain looks like the starter, Roy Helu is going nuts. After Helu recorded 146 total yards in Week 9, he had six carries and Torain had 10. And that's just this season.

After sitting atop The Inquirer's Southeastern Pennsylvania Top 10 football poll for three weeks last season, Neshaminy finally fell victim to its brutal schedule (which included six teams that made the top 10) and lost three of its last four games. That isn't all the Redskins lost. After the season, three defensive coaches stepped down. And the heart of the defense that had allowed just 3 touchdowns over a five-week stretch at the end of the season - linebackers Mike Frederick and Jason Hillaert, defensive tackle Chris Teti and defensive back Dwight Roskos - graduated.

Neshaminy softball coach Margie Tignor is in uncharted territory. Her perennially strong Redskins were decimated because of graduation, leaving Tignor just two returning players. In 17 successful years as coach, Tignor had never had a total rebuilding project before. To make matters worse, the Redskins - like every other team - have been hurt by lack of practice time because of bad weather. They've lost their three league games, including Thursday's 9-0 defeat against Pennsbury.

Neshaminy's chances of winning a second straight Class AAA state championship in boys' soccer were severely reduced Saturday, when the Redskins lost senior Parham Parsa for the season. In the team's 3-1 victory at Abington, Parsa tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. He will undergo surgery in three weeks, and does not expect to play soccer until next summer. "I'll be at games and practices," Parsa said, "so hopefully I can still help. My rehabilitation will take about nine months, so hopefully I can start training again in July or late June.

Because of its youth at several key positions, the Neshaminy girls' soccer team will be hard-pressed to keep pace this season with Suburban One League Patriot Division powers Council Rock and Pennsbury. But that doesn't mean head coach Dennis O'Brien isn't excited about the potential of his group. The Redskins won three of their first four games, including Monday's 10-1 romp over division foe Bensalem. "We're starting a whole lot of freshmen and sophomores, so we're really young," said O'Brien, "but we have a lot of very nice players, and our forwards and halfbacks are pretty fast.

Giants at Redskins 8:30 p.m., ESPN. Line: Giants by 3. The skinny: Daniel Snyder likes his team in the spotlight, but his largely unsuccessful 13 years as Redskins owner have been a Monday night wipeout. Washington has lost 10 straight home Monday night games, nine of them with Snyder as owner. Now, at last, the Redskins have a leader suited for the big show. If anyone can end what tight end Chris Cooley jokingly referred to as "the Monday night curse," it's rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III. The stakes could hardly be bigger for this season's Redskins (5-6)

Daily News football writer Paul Domowitch tells you what he will be keeping an eye on during each Eagles game. Here is how things panned out last night: 1. Walk, don't run: The last time the Eagles faced the Redskins, they were having major issues with their run defense. The Redskins gashed them for 57 rushing yards on their first two possessions and finished with 169 yards on 35 carries. Last night, the Redskins gained 105 yards on 18 carries and scored two rushing touchdowns. 2. The Vick-Jackson connection: DeSean Jackson has been much more of an offensive factor with Michael Vick at quarterback than Kevin Kolb.

Recent history: The Eagles defeated the Redskins on Oct. 26, 27-17. Washington leads the series, 78-67-6.   OFFENSE   Eagles: 354.7 yards per game (11th) Redskins: 309.6 yards per game (25th)   Quarterback   Eagles: Since his poor performance vs. the Redskins last month, Donovan McNabb has completed 65 percent of his passes and averaged 8.29 yards per attempt in four starts. He still needs to step up his play in the red zone, though. He's completed just 7 of 20 passes inside the 20 in the last four games.

AFTER LAST WEEK, so much for my resolution not to get all hand-wringy over what ought to be easy games. Going into yesterday's action, I was doing a way better job picking outcomes for the rest of the league than I was with the Eagles, which is kind of disturbing, since I spend all week around the Eagles and about 10 minutes on sorting out all the other games. Perhaps a little knowledge really is a dangerous thing. Or maybe this team is really, really confounding. There is much here to beware.