In beating the Eagles in their nest last night, there were a number of plays you could point to as being critical–not the least of which was Laron Landry’s game-ending decapitation of Philly wideout Kevin Curtis to seal the deal. But if you were a fan looking for something a little defining or divining, the Skins offensive series to end the first half was probably the stretch of play that gave you that first tingle that maybe the team was onto something.

Getting down the field from their own 27 to the Philadelphia 1-yard-line was a process of tension and guts. A neck-snapping sideline juke here, a brisk QB scramble there, culminating in Antwaan Randle-El’s twisting, whole-body effort to advance the ball as far as possible. From there, the Skins sputtered, picked up some dumb penalties, started moving backwards. But thanks to a weird decision from Andy Reid to ice kicker Scott Suisham that gave Joe Gibbs the needed extra minute to sack up and take a shot at the end zone, we got to watch the Savior toss a perfect pass right into Captain Chaos’ breadbasket for the touchdown. Washington went into the locker room with the lead and never relinquished it.