By Thomas Boswell

Monday, November 25, 2002; Page D01

That's why they call it "the blind side."

Sometimes the things that define football games come from an unseen place, often behind you, that are so unexpected they seem to drop out of the blue. That's why football invented a phrase that is now part of the language -- the blind side.

Every key to the Redskins' 20-17 victory over the Rams yesterday constituted some entertaining variant on that theme.

LaVar Arrington blindsided quarterback Kurt Warner in the game's decisive moment. "That is a play you dream of all your life -- to save the game," Arrington said after his sack with 17 seconds left caused a fumble that the Redskins recovered at their 13-yard line. "It was a pretty cool feeling."

Unless Warner had possessed eyes in the back of his helmet, he could never have seen Arrington's acrobatic leap, knocking the ball out of his hand before he could throw.

In one instant, Warner was the lethal fellow who had completed 34 of 49 passes for 301 yards and seemed certain to have two chances to attempt a safe, but perhaps decisive, pass into the end zone. The next, he was on the ground, courtesy of Arrington, watching Daryl Gardener outwrestle John St. Clair for a ball that was probably lucky it didn't explode.

On that same crushing play, which may eventually doom the Rams' playoff chances, Coach Mike Martz admitted he had blindsided his own team. Martz said he should have called a five-step drop for Warner, not a three-step, allowing a better view of pass rushers.

""It was a bad call at the end," said Martz, scalded that his team did not at least get a chance at a point-blank field goal to force overtime. "We missed three points, and that was a coach's error."

And, even more, on a great rush by Arrington, who had been infuriated all day that St. Clair had been grabbing his face mask, yet not drawn a holding call. On the last play, Arrington stuck his face at St. Clair, then suddenly pulled it back when the tackle grabbed for him. "He missed [the mask] and I put a swim move on him," said Arrington, who took flight as he shot past Warner, then reached back to snag his arm. Maybe St. Clair was blindsided when his own sneaky tactic backfired.

For sure, Redskins quarterback Danny Wuerffel blindsided his critics by playing an almost-flawless, heady game, completing 16 of 23 passes for 235 yards with no interceptions.

"Danny can throw better than he threw those [two] little long balls," said Redskins Coach Steve Spurrier, lamenting two potential touchdown passes that Wuerffel underthrew. "He didn't put [i.e., plant] his [front] foot in the ground and just throw it. . . . I've seen him hit the long ball. . . .

"But the intermediate stuff, you can see he's sharp and throws it where they can catch it. Danny loves to play the game. He loves to check off and get you to the right play. And he's not afraid to play, either."

Wuerffel may not be afraid to compete, but he hasn't been allowed to do much of it. No NFL coach, except Spurrier, has trusted him. Asked afterward if he felt "vindicated" in his decision to go back to Wuerffel -- the Redskins' fifth starting quarterback switch since the last play of the exhibition season -- Spurrier said, "What do you mean by that? You mean a lot of people didn't agree with that choice?"

Then Spurrier laughed: "Sonny Jurgensen told me, 'You're the only one that believed he could play.' "

The knock on Wuerffel has been that he's a tad too small, too slow, too injury-prone and too shy of arm strength. But what about moxie? "Look at Danny's demeanor, his presence," Spurrier said. "He won everything in Florida high school football. He won four SECs and a national [title]. He didn't do it without a brain."

In six seasons with four NFL teams since winning the Heisman Trophy for Spurrier at Florida, Wuerffel had only thrown about 10 full games worth of passes -- with very poor results. Until yesterday, in what was easily his best pro game, unless you count his work with the Rhein Fire in NFL Europe.

Asked what the difference was between this day and all his others in the NFL, Wuerffel said, "[The coach] played me today. I can't think of anything else.

"I've spent half my life being told I was better than I am and the other being told that I'm worse than I am," Wuerffel said.

Some of us, benighted souls, have been squarely in that second camp, thinking Wuerffel a perfect candidate for a rec league in Bowie. But we'll be glad to change. Especially since Wuerffel brings one special gift to the party: He likes to give the ball to Stephen Davis and do it often.

To a degree, Wuerffel may have blindsided Spurrier. For most pro quarterbacks, a position for which egomania is a job qualification, the tendency is to audible at the line from the coach's run calls to your own passes. Yesterday at least, several Redskins said Wuerffel did the opposite, catching the Rams in defensive alignments where he could switch to a Davis run.

At the end of the day, the Redskins had 39 runs to just 24 passes. Only the Redskins' brain trust knows how much of that shift in offensive balance is Spurrier's doing or Wuerffel's or merely circumstance. But Davis went out of his way to compliment Wuerffel on his ability to switch to effective runs at the line.

"They did a lot of zone blitzing," Wuerffel said. "Sometimes, they'd bring the safety. But if you have the right running play called . . . ."

Wuerffel also noted a point Spurrier sometimes misses. Even a mundane running game, like the Redskins' modest 127 yards on 39 carries, wears down a defense like body punching and also facilitates a higher completion percentage, and fewer sacks, because the defense has to honor the run before defending the pass.

"That's how it works," said Wuerffel, noting that lots of runs may have muted the Rams' pass rush, hence no sacks and no interceptions. At any rate, that's how it worked for one week.

As a side benefit, it created a very happy running back. "My son said, 'Please score a touchdown for me,' " Davis said after 31 rushes for 88 yards. "So, I scored three. I guess he's happy . . . like when they ask for a bike for Christmas and you give it to them."

This game was full of momentum-shifting plays and big breaks, including two missed Redskins field goal tries and a botched extra point that might have proved disastrous. Controversial calls abounded, several of which went against the Redskins.

However, one easily overlooked play may, in hindsight, have turned this game. The Redskins led 14-10 with 22 minutes to play and faced fourth and one at the Rams 5-yard line. It is absolute NFL orthodoxy to take the field goal in that situation, expand the lead to seven points.

Spurrier went for it. Not with a sneak or plunge, but with a slow-developing sweep, the one run you might least expect because it's the most likely to be thrown for a loss. The Rams were, in a sense, blindsided. Davis scored almost untouched. And those extra gambling Spurrier points were the margin of victory.

Fitting, indeed.