Going into the weekend, Redskins fans had a lengthy wishlist. A New England win over Tampa Bay, a Pittsburgh victory in Minneapolis, and Atlanta loss in frozen Chicago (which was aided and abetted by Rex Grossman, which means we can no longer say that Steve Spurrier never did anything for us), and, of course, a December victory over arch-rival Dallas Sunday evening at the Jack. So, umm…check, check, check, and, CHECK. The end result of Sunday’s NFL action: the Redskins hurdle the field of contenders and find themselves in sixth place in the NFC, with the inside track on the last post-season slot. Everything we wanted, and all a week before Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, we hope that Drew Bledsoe called his wife at the end of the game to tell her to run to the A&P to get some food for Santa, because Phillip Daniels and the Washington defense done run up in his cut and swiped all his milk and cookies. There’s a bright line that separates pretenders from contenders in the NFL, and one of the differentiators is whether you are going to let Drew Bledsoe beat you after December 1. Daniels tipped Bledsoe’s first throw into the arms of Cornelius Griffin and spent the rest of the game hounding Bledsoe, notching four sacks of his own on a day where the Redskins got to him seven times and harassed him on a majority of snaps.

The Redskins offense played the first half in attack mode as well, with players demonstrating that they were still as passionate about the Cowboys-Indians rivalry as the fans. It was evidenced in the way Portis and Cooley dipped down during their runs to lay helmet licks on their tacklers, the way Ladell Betts ran upside the back of a helpless Terence Newman, the way that guard Randy Thomas pumped his fists and cheered with the crowd even as he was being driven off the field with a broken leg. Bolstered by a running game that netted 171 yards on forty carries, Mark Brunell stayed upright and unmolested, making deadly use of his twelve completions.