At first, it looked like a laugher in progress. It ended as a nailbiter. In a slogging game punctuated by missteps and flukes, the Washington Redskins escaped with a win at home against the Arizona Cardinals. How’d Washington pull out the win? On balance, they just reaped slightly larger benefits from the errors, but credit some missed kicks and the strangest two-point conversion call I’ve ever seen for the victory.

By and large, scoring opportunities came about only through the play of the defense, special teams, and the officials. That goes for both teams. The first twenty-one points of the contest were set up by interceptions; Sean Taylor’s first quarter catch and return set up a Portis touchdown, and London Fletcher took his pick to the end zone. Washington was up 14-0 and everything felt right with the world. But, toward the end of the half, a tipped ball from the Savior ended up in the hands of Calvin Pace, and, like the Dolphins in Week One, the Cardinals got six points on a fourth-and-goal at the end of the half. Neil Rackers had his PAT try blocked, which prompted him to begin a fantasia of offsetting unnecessary roughness penalties with Carlos Rogers.