By Greg Brice
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, November 23, 1998; Page C7

Arizona offensive lineman Lomas Brown shook his head yesterday as he jogged off the field at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium. Although his team had just beaten the Washington Redskins, 45-42, Brown was frustrated and confused.

His team had just won its sixth game of the season to keep it in the hunt for an NFC playoff berth. But the Cardinals almost fell victim to the biggest comeback in NFL history.

"I don't care what people say – no lead is ever safe in the NFL," said Brown, whose Cardinals led 31-0 in the second quarter and 31-6 at halftime. "For as good as we played in the first half, [the Redskins] played just as well in the second half. ... That's how it is in this league. A little momentum can go a long way."

Like Brown, Arizona Coach Vince Tobin could not put on a finger on how his team almost let a 31-point lead slip away. He said the Cardinals were not overconfident at halftime, and insists they did not let down in the second half.

"We tried everything to stop them in the second half, but nothing seemed to work," Tobin said. "I thought we ran the ball well and Jake [quarterback Jake Plummer] threw the ball well, but [the Redskins] got a little momentum and rode it through the [second] half."

After holding Washington to 132 yards in the first half, Arizona's defense fell apart in the second half and the Redskins scored on six straight possessions. With the Redskins trailing by three points with 76 seconds remaining, they were driving again, and only safety Kwamie Lassiter's interception secured the win.

"When your team is up 31-6 at halftime, you have to have that killer instinct," said defensive lineman Simeon Rice, who had two tackles and two sacks. "This is a lesson to us. It isn't over until it's over."

"I told the squad before the game that strange things have happened here and that no deficit is too great to overcome," said Tobin, whose team trailed the Redskins 17-7 two weeks ago but came back to win, 29-27. "Unfortunately, we had the lead and we could not control the ballgame and finish it up."

Arizona running back Larry Centers said that despite scoring 31 points in the first half the players were not overly confident heading into the locker room. After the roller-coaster game two weeks ago in which the Redskins scored 10 points in the final two minutes, only to lose on a 47-yard field goal by Joe Nedney, Centers knew anything was possible.

"In the nine years that I have been here, we have not had many chances to put teams away," Centers said. "We had the chance today, but we couldn't do it. I'm not sure why. I think we were very comfortable on the sideline [in the second half], maybe too comfortable. We let them gain momentum and get back in the game."