Instead of possibly going into the half up by just two touchdowns, the Redskins did not allow the Bills to score on three consecutive goal-line plays in their victory.

The Buffalo Bills tried and tried again, but they simply had no luck against a Washington Redskins defense that had perhaps their strongest three consecutive plays of the season.

After Jamison Crowder muffed a punt return – which was recovered by the Bills – late in the second quarter, Buffalo marched down the field to get into a 1st and goal situation at the Redskins' six-yard line with less than three minutes before halftime.

The elusive Tyrod Taylor gained five yards to his right on first down, giving the Bills a 2nd and goal from the one-yard line.

On second down, the Bills called on LeSean McCoy to get the Bills their first touchdown of the day. It was unsuccessful, as McCoy was stopped for no gain.

On 3rd and goal, it was the same deal: McCoy up the middle for nothing.

Electing to go for it on fourth down – trailing 21-0 – the Bills decided to mix up their play calling, throwing a fade for Sammy Watkins.

It was badly overthrown, sealing a beautiful goal line stand.

"They challenged me three plays in a row and, you know, they'll learn," nose tackle Terrance Knighton said with a smile after the Redskins 35-25 victory.

While the series happened on Sunday afternoon in front of a loud home crowd at FedExField, defensive end Kedric Golston said the work they put in through the practice week is what made the difference.

"I think it starts on Friday when we had the meeting going over what they like to do and don't like to do," Golston said. "Attention to detail and everybody understanding what they needed to get done in order to stop them. It's a point of pride and situational football when it's third down or goal line. You have to go out there and win those situations if you want to win football games. It was just an opportunity to do something big as a defense. Anytime you can get a goal line stop like that, it's something you'll never forget as a player."

Indeed, it was a special series in a special game that was highlighted by the play of Kirk Cousins on offense.

But even though the defense gave up some plays, they didn't allow the Bills enough to really cut into the lead the Redskins built, especially with their best chance of the first half.

"We had a bend but don't break attitude," defensive lineman Chris Baker said. "We always want to keep them out of the end zone. We got down to the one-yard line, was like, 'Hey, we not letting them in here.' So we did a good job of just playing sound football and came up with the big stop."

Defensive end Ricky Jean Francois said the unit "just had to man up."

They most certainly did.

"That's football right there," Jean Francois said. "You get down there in that type of situation. Inches -- was no 4th and 1, no 3rd and 1 -- that was inches.  Every inch counts, so we just made sure we had the stop, and we had to make sure we get that ball back to the offense and it was a big play when we stopped them going in to halftime. That was a big time, because they didn't get to score. …It was a victory in both ends."

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