Youth versus experience

WITH the unbeaten Indianapolis Colts on their bye week tomorrow (Sunday) attention turns to the NFC East battle between youth and experience when the Washington Redskins take on the New York Giants.

In other words, it’s 35-year-old Redskins QB Mark Brunell against 24-year-old Giants QB Eli Manning. Both teams proved last week that either approach to quarterbacking can work wonders.

Brunell directed the Redskins’ biggest point outburst in 14 years with a 52-17 victory over San Francisco (56 points against Atlanta on 11/10/91).

Manning engineered two touchdown drives in the final 4:11 to wipe out a 13-point deficit in topping Denver 24-23.

Both teams, along with Philadelphia, are tied for first in the NFC East. The Giants will have to contend with a balanced attack.

Only Washington and Seattle have offenses with top-10 NFL rankings in overall, rush and pass offense.

The Redskins will have to tightly protect the ball because the Giants have picked up on their head coach Tom Coughlin’s mantra of forcing turnovers by tallying the NFL’s second-most takeaways (19 to Cincinnati’s 23), off which they have scored the third-most points (57; Cincinnati, 77; Indianapolis, 63).

A key could be Redskins WR Santana Moss, with four 100-yard receiving games in the past five weeks. This is a “home” game for him, having spent 2001-04 with the Giants Stadium co-tenant New York Jets.