It may boil down to one of those oddball statistical flukes that sports devotees cling to as a higher sign -- like how the team who wins the media week Madden contest always wins the title -- but for the first 27 years of the Super Bowl era in the NFL, there was no game more important than the opening game. No team that lost their opener ever went on to win the Super Bowl, a fact that would stay true until the 1993-94 season, when the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Buffalo Bills 30-13 in a season that began with an Emmitt Smith hold-out and a season opening loss to the Redskins. This was not the first time the hated Cowboys destroyed one of the universal harmonies of the National Football League, nor would it be the last. But while the old mystique of opening day may be diminished, there was nothing but happy fans in Washington Sunday, as the Redskins put away the Chicago Bears, 9-7.

The game was billed as a match between two teams with top-tier defenses and anemic offenses, and it played out just as the prognosticators drew it up. Both teams had tremendous trouble running the ball early, and the Bears spent the first half struggling to get so much as a first down. Gregg Williams’ charges, despite the off-season personnel losses, haven’t lost a step since week seventeen a year ago. Bears’ RBs Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson were held to 41 yards on 18 carries, and while rookie quarterback Kyle Orton played with real poise—and from time to time received stellar pass protection—he committed two critical turnovers and was never able to string enough big passing plays together to mount a serious drive. The only score the Redskins gave up came after Skins returner Antonio Brown fumbled the opening kick of the second half and gave the Bears the spot at the 23 yard line.

The Post’s Jason La Canfora, has already issued his harsh indictment of the Redskins offense, but, in truth, Washington looked pretty good playing against a defense of Chicago’s caliber. QB Patrick Ramsey looked shaky on his first two drives, but was getting into a nice rhythm until he got clotheslined by Bears’ linebacker Lance Briggs (Ramsey would finish with a 9.5 yard passing average). Mark Brunell -- or "Scott" Brunell as announcer Dick Stockton seemed to think -- took over after Ramsey’s injury and showed great improvement over his performance last year by playing with dazzling adequacy the rest of the game. As time went on, Clinton Portis wore down the Bears defense, and new wideout Santana Moss made a number of great catches as well. Overall, the Redskins dominated the clock, rushed for 164 yards, and got the ball downfield when needed. Obviously, some touchdowns would have been nice, but Gibbs’ offense showed more signs of life Sunday than they typically did last year.

Still, the hallmark of the Redskins team is that defense, and on one critical drive in the fourth quarter, they demonstrated their capacity to change the game. With just over eight minutes to play, the Bears had a first down on the Redskins 34. With the game in the balance, the defense dropped Jones for a three yard loss, igniting feral decibels from the crowd. With the ear damaging roar behind them, the Redskins bedeviled the Chicago offensive line into committing three consecutive false start penalties. When the Bears were finally able to get the ball snapped, defensive end Demetric Evans buried Orton for an additional ten yard loss. Chicago never threatened again.

The modest win for Washington nevertheless kicked up some dark clouds, chief among them quarterback controversy. With Ramsey getting clocked by Briggs and then hooked by Gibbs, one has to wonder who’s going to be under center next week. Brunell won’t get it done over the long haul if he continues to pass at a five-yard average, but Ramsey’s going to struggle mightily himself if he keeps bringing down the catcalls with poor first quarter play. In other bad news, kicker John Hall -- the Redskin who was actually able to score -- reinjured his right quadriceps on the game’s final kickoff. Washington will get an extra day to sort it out before facing Dallas a week from Monday. In the meantime, fans can still savor the win. In a game that featured grinding runs, punishing defense, and a jacked up home crowd screaming their diaphragms out, for a while Sunday, it felt like old times. The good old times.