This has been a difficult year for many. Most of us will be glad to put it in the record books and move on to what we hope will be a far better 2010.

One of those teams just combined for seven points over the course of an entire game, all of which came in fourth-quarter garbage time. The other just clamped down on their opponent for an entire second half, holding them to zero points and negative-eight yards passing.

One of those teams just lost to a mid-tier opponent that was barely clinging to .500 and in desperate need of some shred of positivity to push them towards end of the season. And the other team overcame a three-point first-half deficit by reeling off 13 unanswered second-half points to grab a victory.

In case you missed it, the team whose offense sputtered like the Little Engine That Couldn't, the team that laid an egg against a struggling opponent after winning four straight, that team was the Cowboys.

The team that beat a division leader, the team that featured a balanced offense that showcased a pounding running game and a quarterback who connected with nine of his receivers, (and whose punter connected with a tenth), and the team whose defense knocked out their opponent's starting quarterback to close the first half and feasted on his replacement in the second, that team was the Redskins.

Not bad.

The offensive line actually looked offensive, in a good way, for a whole game for the first time this season. Yes, Jason Campbell was sacked three times during the day, but he didn't resemble a guy desperate to join witness-protection like he has for most of the season. The fact that he managed to stay upright for much of the day behind a line with more patches than Windows XP is a miracle in and of itself.

The defense, if you take away the first half, looked like a collection of Pro-Bowlers. Forget for a moment that the quarterback they were playing against has barely more actual NFL game experience than I do over the last two seasons, and forget for a moment the entire first half during which Kyle Orton and Brandon Marshall did their best Joe Montana and Jerry Rice impressions, and forget for just a moment longer that LaRon Landry, Fred Smoot and Carlos Rogers sometimes look like the three blind mice. They still all buckled down when it counted.

Special teams? When your punter has a perfect passer rating on the season and is the only player to both run and pass for a touchdown, hey, what is there to complain about.

Brian Orakpo continues to evolve into something very, very special, and no player has benefited more from Albert Haynseworth's signing than Andre Carter who looks more and more like a player reborn in each passing week.

What does it all mean? Hard to say, but if (IF!) the Redskins can jump on the Cowboys on Sunday, it could make for a very, very interesting second half of the season.

Also in the Bag…

Gilbert Arenas and the Wizards don't quite look like world-beaters just yet, but that doesn't mean they won't. Without a healthy roster, there's just no way to say. That said, if things don't translate into a playoff run this year, even a one-round playoff run, it's time to shop at least one or two of your big-three.

Ted Leonsis, George McPhee, Bruce Boudreau and the rest of the brain trust running the Caps look more and more like they really know what they're doing. It just goes to show that you don't have to live above the 49th parallel to appreciate hockey. Unlike some people in the Phoenix area might want you to believe.

Congrats to Jim Riggleman on being named full-time manager of the Nats next season. I think…

And congrats to Manny Acta on landing the manager's gig in Cleveland. Again, I think….

Super big congrats to Michelle Wie on winning her first LPGA Tour event. On second thought, that might be super big congrats to the LPGA Tour on Michelle Wie's winning her first tour event.

Tiger won the Australian Masters, beating Adam Scott and a bunch of other Aussie golfers you've never heard of. It only cost the organizers $3 million to get him there, half of which was financed by the Australian government. See, down under the government has the right idea; instead of giving corporations zillions of dollars which then get blown on golf tournaments, the Australian government just gives the money directly to golf tournament itself. Nobody can complain about that….

I've never enjoyed seeing anyone suffer a brain freeze as much as I did Bill Parcells when he called a rinky-dink pass play on 4th-and-2 at the end of the Colts game rather than doing what 99.9% of people would've done and punted it. That was the dictionary definition of "too smart for your own good." The fact that it cost Parcells and his team the game?

Priceless.