"The play - a simple, if daring, play-action pass down the sideline to receiver Santana Moss - was something the Washington Redskins had been sitting on for two weeks. Coach Jim Zorn had installed it in practice and was waiting for the right time to use it. When he finally made the call, the Redskins' season was in a tenuous state.

Empty orange seats ringed the top rows of FedEx Field on Sunday, the first home game since the Detroit Lions beat the Redskins for their first win in 19 games. When fans streamed out of the Morgan Boulevard Metro stop, a local radio station was waiting with homemade headgear - paper grocery bags, printed with the slogan, "Love the team, hate the owner!"

And when the Redskins came off the field at halftime, down 10-0 after 30 minutes of football that doubled as a sampler platter of everything an embattled football team can do to make its situation worse, they did so under a deafening downpour of boos. "