Two weeks ago, a stirring home win over the Philadelphia Eagles resulted in the Washington Redskins notching a respectable 5-3 record. Entrenched in the NFC playoff picture, Head Coach Joe Gibbs lauded his team’s play and spoke of the opportunity they now had to compete in “big games” instead of desperate games. That was two weeks ago. Circa today, the Redskins are nursing their wounds after a second critical late-game loss placed their season in grave straits.

Overcoming a weak offensive first-half, the Raiders defense rose up to head off the Skins, seemingly riding a cresting wave of emotion as they fought to provide their embattled coach Norv Turner a measure of revenge over his former team. For a day, Turner got to experience the sort of victory lap that eluded him when he was with the team. As anyone who follows the team knows, Turner was unceremoniously dumped in the middle of a then 7-6 season by Dan Snyder, whose forked tongue had only offered the phoniest of support a season after the Redskins had ended a long playoff drought. That capital decision had the added bonus of placing loyal Redskin assistant Terry Robiskie in an unworkable situation that thoroughly alienated him from the organization he dutifully served for years, and was followed by the types of managerial decisions that lead to…what? Oh, yeah. Another long playoff drought.

As far as the game itself, the Redskins opened the affair with a strong defensive showing. Linebacker Lemar Marshall snagged a first quarter interception and bull-rushed his way to the endzone. John Hall matched his Oakland counterpart Sebastian Janikowski two for one over the course of the half, sending the teams to the half with the Redskins up a dime.