Washington receiver Santana Moss sat on the bench, frustrated and pissed off. It was the fourth quarter of Monday Night Football, and Washington was being shut out by Dallas. "All right buddy, we fought hard," someone had said. He took off his helmet.

"He was like, about to cry," former teammate Shawn Springs said with a small laugh on the latest episode of "Hail Tales: Stories from Washington Football History."

Losing was certainly partially the cause of Moss' hard feelings. More than that though, the wide receiver, just in his second game with Washington, believed he could make a difference if the ball was in his hands. That, unfortunately, wasn't happening for over three quarters.

"He had had been killing them all game, but he just wasn't getting the ball," Spring said. "He won't speak up for himself … He's not the typical receiver where he'll be like, 'Throw me the damn ball or I'mma quit.' He's not that guy. He won't do that. He'll just be like, you know, sitting on the bench or whatever."

And there -- sitting on the bench, processing -- is where running back Clinton Portis stepped in.

"He's like, 'What's wrong with you?' and that's when I was like, 'Bro. I ran all those plays in practice…and I didn't see them all game," Moss said.

"He's like, 'What's wrong with you?' and that's when I was like, 'Bro. I ran all those plays in practice…and I didn't see them all game," Moss said.

Portis also knew that Moss could be a spark plug. If there was something -- anything -- that could be done to get Washington back in this game, now was the time to do it.

"I'm like, 'Man, why don't you pick up the phone and tell him?'" Portis said. "He's like 'What?' and I'm like, 'Man, what you want to run?' and I just went and told Coach."

What he wanted to run was the Dino route, which Moss had learned while watching the great Marvin Harrison.

"And then Coach [Joe] Gibbs comes back like, 'Hey, you want to run the Dino if we get the ball back?'" Moss said. "I look up at the clock and...I didn't want to be disrespectful, so I'm like, 'Sure, Coach.' I had a look on my face like, 'Now you want to throw this ball to me?'"

That's what they did on fourth-and-15 with under four minutes left and Washington down by 13. Quarterback Mark Brunell hit Moss in the end zone with a near-perfect pass that barely missed Cowboy safety Roy Williams' grasp. Moss would go on to score again, and the rest, well, is Washington football history.