The storylines surrounding the Washington Redskins and Tennessee Titans game may have overshadowed that game itself. The Redskins were also coming off one of the worst games to be professionally played against the Eagles last Monday night. As Michael Vick made the Redskins defense look like a high school team, Washington came in to Tennessee in worse shape without half of its starting secondary. With starting corner Carlos Rodgers and safety LaRon Landry sitting the game out due to injury, Washington prevailed 19-16 in Overtime in Albert Haynesworth’s first game in Nashville since the Redskins lured him away from the Titans last off-season.

The Titans and Redskins played a game in which both teams desperately needed a win to keep its playoff hopes alive. The Titans came into the game off a hard loss in which Tyler Thigpen of the Miami Dolphins came in off the bench as the third string quarterback. In this contest the Titans seemingly were hoping for similar magic when Vince Young went out of the game with a thumb injury late in the third quarter. With the game tied at 13 and Tennessee’s every day backup quarterback Kerry Collins already out with an injury, the Titans turned to rookie Rusty Smith out of Florida Atlantic. Smith immediately jolted the crowd throwing a deep ball to Randy Moss for what appeared to be a 36 yard touchdown on his second pass, but the play was nullified when Moss was called for pushing off the cornerback. Moss was held without a catch the entire game pushing his total to one catch in two games since being traded to the Titans.

As the game went into the fourth, Rusty proved to be just that as he finished the game with only 3 completions for 62 yards, 52 coming on a deep pass to Nate Washington that led to a field goal. Washington responded on their next possession as Graham Gano hit a 42 yard field goal to tie the game at 16. With Young out of the game, the Titans relied on Chris Johnson who finished the game 130 yards, but Washington could key on him with Rusty Smith struggling

Washington had a chance to win the game in regulation getting the ball back with 1:37 left and one timeout, and no sign of Rex Grossman replacing Donovan McNabb. McNabb went 5/6 for 44 yards to the Titans 29 yard line to give Gano a chance to kick a game winning 47 yard field goal. The kick proved to be short as the game went to overtime, where Gano would receive a chance at redemption after the Redskins forced Tennessee to punt on their first possession in overtime. After an overturned interception call and two roughing the passer penalties committed by Tennessee, Washington ended up on the Titans 30 yard line when Gano hit a 48 yard field goal to win the game.

The 11 total penalties committed by Tennessee seemed to doom their chances of winning against a short handed Washington team that lost several players in the game, including Clinton Portis, who returned for his first game back after missing several games due to a hamstring injury. Starting offensive lineman Casey Rabach and Derrick Dockery were also lost in this game, making Donovan McNabb’s 376 yard passing performance on 30/50 attempts seem even more impressive with this already make shift offensive line protecting him. Santana Moss led the Redskins with six receptions for 91 yards and their only touchdown. Titans receiver Mike Mariani scored on an 87 yard return to open the scoring mid-way through the first quarter.