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5 Key Plays Sunday

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 26, 2007

Santana Moss had a 7-yard catch on the Redskins' first play from scrimmage, but his attempt to stretch his body for an extra yard gave the Bucs their first turnover of the afternoon when cornerback Phillip Buchanon stripped the unprotected ball from Moss' hands and safety Tanard Jackson recovered and returned it to the Washington 19. Three plays later, Earnest Graham leaped into the end zone from 1 yard out to give the Bucs an early 7-0 lead.

The chances of the Bucs getting points out of their last possession of the first half didn't seem all that great when they lined up to run a second-and-18 play from the Redskins' 37-yard line late in the second quarter. They had just taken a sack and time was starting to run out. However, when backup quarterback Bruce Gradkowski connected with Ike Hilliard on a 16-yard pass play, it put the Bucs in position to put more points on the board. They did that two plays later when Matt Bryant kicked his fourth field goal of the game from 39 yards out to extend Tampa Bay's lead to 19-3 at halftime.

The Redskins were rolling. They already had tightened the game by scoring on their first possession of the second half and they were in position to score again when they lined up to run a fourth-and-inches play from the Bucs' 4 with 2:10 to play in the third quarter. As they often do in short-yardage situations, the Redskins chose to run Clinton Portis up the middle to get the necessary yard. This time, though, Derrick Brooks read the play, fought off a block and plugged the gap, stopping Portis for no gain and forcing the Redskins to walk away from their third-longest drive with no points.

The Redskins were driving again, this time late in the fourth quarter, with time running out and the Bucs offense seemingly unable to improve on its 19-point output of the first half. On a second-and-5 play from the Tampa Bay 32, Redskins QB Jason Campbell dropped back to pass and threw an outlet intended for Santana Moss. As he has so often before in crunch time, Ronde Barber stepped in front of Moss, picked off Campbell's throw and became the team's all-time leading interceptor.

The Bucs were absolutely spent physically when the Redskins lined up to a run a second-and-10 play from the Tampa Bay 16 with 25 seconds to play in the game. They had reason to be, having spent all but about five of the previous 29 minutes trying to keep Washington from coming back. The defense needed to make one more big play; on that second-and-10, Brian Kelly provided it. He stepped in front of a Jason Campbell throw for Santana Moss in the corner of the end zone that didn't have quite enough air under it and picked it off, sealing the victory for Tampa Bay.

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