Portis still got his yards - 126 of them, giving him five straight games with 120 or more, a franchise record. But he’s a different kind of impact player from Moss. Clinton’s impact - 4 yards here, 6 yards there - is more like an ax chopping down a tree. Santana’s impact, on the other hand, can be so sudden that it almost seems like a nuclear reaction.
The Redskins certainly needed a big game from him Sunday, especially after Chris Samuels had to be scratched in warmups with a balky knee. Moss’ efforts left him with a slightly tweaked hamstring suffered on his final grab, a 20-yarder along the sideline, but other than that he was in good shape.
And so, at the season’s halfway point, were the Redskins. They were 6-2 and only a week away from a much deserved bye. How easily it could have been different, though.
After all, success in the Any Given Sunday League, as Zorn put it, is “very fragile.” It doesn’t take much for a team to start going in the opposite direction. But thanks to Moss, that didn’t happen to the Redskins. He kept them on course, kept them headed toward … who knows what?
Dan Daly has been writing about sports for the Washington Times since 1982. He has won numerous national and local awards, appears regularly in NFL Films’ historical features and is the co-author of “The Pro Football Chronicle,” a decade-by-decade history of the game. Follow Dan on Twitter at @dandalyonsports –- or e-mail him at ddaly@washingtontimes.com.
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