Redskins roll in American Bowl

? Steve Spurrier’s first NFL exhibition game had a Florida-type result.

The Washington Redskins threw early and often and won by more than four touchdowns, just as Spurrier’s Fun ‘N Gun Gators used to do, in a 38-7 victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday night in the American Bowl.

The Redskins passed for five touchdowns, threw the ball 45 times and ran it just 21 times. Spurrier even went long on fourth-and-1 when Danny Wuerffel tossed a 31-yard touchdown pass over the middle to Derrius Thompson.

The final score and many of the stats of the NFL’s first exhibition game of the season meant little. It was overwhelmingly backups vs. backups, and the more pressing concern for Spurrier was Round 1 of a three-way battle for the starting quarterback job.

Sage Rosenfels had some early jitters, throwing two incomplete passes and an interception on the first three plays. He settled down, however, and threw touchdown passes of 65 yards to Thompson and 10 yards to Robert Royal in the second quarter against the 49ers’ backup secondary.

Rosenfels, a second-year player who didn’t get into a regular season game last year, played the entire first half and finished 10-for-20 for 172 yards.

Wuerffel played the second half and looked impressive, leading four scoring drives in four possessions and making two creative plays: a spin-move toss to Robert Gillespie to avoid a sack and a jump-pass to Ladell Betts.

Wuerffel also hit Darnerien McCants for touchdowns of 14 and 44 yards, and Brett Conway kicked a 30-yard field goal in the third quarter. Wuerffel completed 16 of 25 passes for 269 yards and three TDs.