PHILADELPHIA — Five games is five games, granted. Nonetheless, riddle me five questions:

Who besides the New York Giants has what it takes to bring down Jim Zorn and his so-far remarkable Washington Redskins? What will it take to make them cough up a turnover? Where do we nominate Zorn for Coach of the Year? When is it fair, seriously, to anoint the Redskins an NFC Super Bowl favorite?

How crazy is it to even ponder such improbables? The truth: Right now, not crazy in the least.

All of the above is up for conversation now that the Redskins — on consecutive Sundays in the killer NFC East — have gone to Dallas to beat the Cowboys and then to Philadelphia to lash the Eagles 23-17. That's an unprecedented achievement for this franchise and it's an unlikely launch to Zorn's career as a head coach, which started with an unsightly 16-7 loss to New York.

The run has propelled the Redskins to four wins in a row, raising them to the top of their game and their division. It has instilled in their locker room a sense of purpose and poise that starts with the boyish Zorn and radiates around.

Five games is five games, but it still counts as really powerful stuff.

No telling what the next four will bring heading into bye week, although giddy fans already know there are two terrible teams — St. Louis and Detroit — in that pending mix. For now, it is enough to say that the Redskins' steadiness, toughness and creativity have turned the league on its ear.

When you win in the NFL, quarterback Jason Campbell said, "people start to talk about you. ... Teams are going to put that X on our back and they're going to turn it up a notch more when they play us."

That X, of course, is the privilege you play for. Over the last decade in this conference, Philly has worn it more than Washington. There's no question which of the two deserves it now.

Sunday, the Redskins trailed 14-0 barely seven minutes in. The Eagles drove 80 yards to open up, then rookie DeSean Jackson brought back a punt 68 yards for a touchdown. All the Redskins did from there was relax, regroup, assert their physical and mental dominance over the flagging Eagles and score 23 straight points.

Not the way Zorn mapped it out — for example, leading receiver Santana Moss had zero catches — but definitely the way he saw his team finishing.

"We didn't try to grab-bag and change our whole game plan," Zorn said. "We just stayed with what we had."

They had plenty, and nothing more important than the ability to hold the Eagles without a first down from early in the second quarter to early in the fourth quarter.

Washington ran 28 more plays than the Eagles did; that was really the game right there. Unable to enjoy a sustained break except for halftime, Philly's defense, yielding just 54 rushing yards per game, was shredded for 203, including 145 on Clinton Portis' 29 carries.

"He does a really nice job of slicing through defensive lines," Zorn said of Portis, who put up 121 yards last week in Dallas. "He's a slicer and a dicer."

Bleeding from a million cuts, the Eagles had no strength to get to Campbell for more than one sack. Philly did use specific strategies to take away Moss, who entered with 27 catches. That just meant they picked their poison: Campbell instead directed seven balls to tight end Chris Cooley — and Antwaan Randle El tossed Cooley an 18-yard option pass for the go-ahead TD halfway through the third period.

"We take a lot of pride in being able to pound the ball down the field," Cooley said. "And that definitely opened up the field for me."

Two more things to note, indicative of the Redskins' superiority while raising the ledge-jumping quotient in Philly:

First, at third-and-1 from the Redskins' 2 halfway through the fourth, defensive end Andre Carter blew up the blocking for Brian Westbrook. Carter dropped Westbrook for a three-yard loss and forced a Philadelphia field goal.

Second , Washington's ensuing possession — starting with 7:12 to play — was the game's last . Campbell converted third down twice, first buying time with his feet before completing a pass and the next time dashing up the middle for 15 yards when he needed nine.

That capped yet another day of turnover-free football by the Redskin. And that's hard to believe, even for some of the people involved.

"To not have something happen, to have a helmet hit a football and knock it out or a ball getting tipped off of someone's hands ... that's pretty impressive," Cooley said. "We work hard on protecting the ball, but not to have something weird happen is a little bit lucky, I would say."

Five games in, the verdict: The Redskins are lucky and good. Beat that combination.