For three and a half quarters last night, the first meeting between the Redskins and the despised Dallas Cowboys played out according to the worst fears of hometown fans. The offense was cover-your-eyes awful. The Skins committed turnovers and penalties in the face of a swarming rush. Dallas’ defense stacked the line, keeping Clinton Portis in check and forcing the ball into the hands of Mark Brunell. And Mark Brunell obliged the home crowd by throwing junk: passes off and passes short and passes weak and passes telegraphed. There came a moment in the fourth quarter where the viewing of the game grew tedious, where the end seemed inevitable, where the lede of this article seemed written and where sleep beckoned DCist to bed.

That was about sixty seconds before things got good. Real effing good.

Facing a third-and-27 with under five minutes to go, Mark Brunell, in need of a big play and finding nobody open, took matters into his own hands and broke off on a mad dash down the field, managing to cover 25 yards. On the ensuing fourth down play, he connected with James Thrash for a twenty yard gain. Three incompletions later, Brunell finally connected deep, hitting wideout Santana Moss in the endzone. Moss gave a first-rate effort to get back to the slightly underthrown ball in notching the first Redskins touchdown of the year. An offensive holding call on Flozell Adams killed the ensuing Dallas drive, giving the ball back to Washington. And after a ten yard pass to Portis, Brunell tossed up his best stuff, finding Moss again and hitting him in stride as he streaked between the safeties for a stunning seventy-yard score and a one point lead.