By Leonard Shapiro
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, Dec. 22, 1975; Page C1

The Philadelphia Eagles intercepted seven passes and ran two of them back for touchdowns en route to a 26-3 drubbing of the Redskins before 49,385 persons at RFK Stadium yesterday.

"Right now, you feel like you want to crawl into a hole and hide for two or three months and not face anybody," said Randy Johnson, who was intercepted four times in more than two periods of quarterbacking the Redskins.

For the Redskins, who finished 8-6 and missed the playoffs for the first time in George Allen's five years here, it was a dismal end to what was a thrilling season. Philadelphia finished 4-10, beating the Redskins twice for the first time since 1961.

"It's hard to find anything to be thankful for or proud of when you lose like we did today," Allen said. "The Eagles out-played us in every area."

The only tiding of joy four days before Christmas occurred long after the final outcome of this one-sided game had been decided.

With 10:06 left to play, Charley Taylor finally caught the record 634th pass of his distinguished career — a screen. He carried for 11 yards and a first down. No one in the history of professional football has caught more passes. He later caught pass No. 635.

By the time Taylor broke the record, however, the Redskins were trailing by 17 points, largely because Johnson, playing for the injured Billy Kilmer, had thrown four interceptions. The last, a quick out intended for Frank Grant on the left sideline, was intercepted and returned 36 yards for a touchdown by Joe Lavender six minutes into the third quarter for a 20-3 Eagles' lead.

At that point, the Redskins became the dead 'Skins and not even a dose of Joe Theismann could revive them.

Allen finally relented to the crowd's cheer of "We Want Joe" after Lavender's touchdown. But Theismann did not fare much better than Johnson, throwing three interceptions in the final 24 minutes. The seven interceptions tied a Redskin record set in 1950.

"When you're down by 17 points with a quarter and a half to play, it's pretty hard to establish a running game," said Theismann, making his first appearance as a quarterback this season. "We had to put it up, and they got a few."

The Redskins were out of the game almost from the very start. Mike Thomas fumbled on the Redskins' third play from scrimmage, and Randy Logan recovered for the Eagles. From there things went from bad to worse for the Redskins.

Eagle quarterback Mike Boryla drove his team 83 yards in five plays to a touchdown. It was the kind of drive the Redskins' defense has been allowing all season, ending when Boryla threw 28 yards to Charles Smith for the score 5:50 into the first quarter.

Smith was so wide open, he caught the ball with his back to the goal line and simply back-pedaled another 10 yards or so into the end zone untouched.

That really was all the points the Eagles needed on this raw, snowy day.

The Eagles increased their lead on Horst Muhlmann field goals of 25 and 23 yards, the second coming with 4:25 elapsed in the third quarter for a 13-3 advantage.

Lavender's interception touchdown ended all doubt and Frank LeMaster's 89-yard touchdown run with a Theisman pitch with 2:01 to play was the final humiliating blow.

"I wish I could explain it," said Johnson, who started yesterday because Kilmer was unavoidably detained at Sibley Hospital.

"It disappoints me. Nobody was ready to play . . . I didn't realize it. I thought we were ready. A couple of the interceptions were bad judgements. Charley (Taylor) slipped on one and so did Frank (Grant)."

"They just guessed right more times than I did. It certainly wasn't a very good performance. The same thing could probably be said for 39 other guys, too. It just seemed like nobody wanted to take charge today."

Nobody, of course, but the Eagles, who ground out 172 yards rushing against the Redskins and could have saved the job of their head coach, Mike McCormack. Until yesterday, the Eagles had not won in Washington since 1966. A decision on McCormack's future probably will be made this week.

Allen, meanwhile, was grieving over the Redskins' second loss in two weeks. "We thought before the game that everybody was ready to play," he said, shaking his head.

"There's no question there was a letdown after losing the playoff spot to Dallas. But we have no excuses, no alibis."

"It's going to be a rotten Christmas," said Theismann.