Steven Jackson continued his impressive performance by pounding the ball into the red zone and earning still another Rams first down.

The Rams were poised to take the lead. At least, they were about to get a chip-shot field goal. They seemed to have the momentum to score seven.

Bulger completed his first pass to Donnie Avery, near the first down marker at the Washington 5 . . . and then Avery spit up the ball.

Yes, these are still the Rams.

The defense picked up the offense and kept Washington from moving out of this hole. Washington was forced to punt the ball back to the Rams, who got another opportunity in Redskins territory.

Looking to keep Bulger upright, the Rams came back running the ball with Jackson. But on third and two, the Rams didn’t run Jackson — and they didn’t release him from the backfield as a receiver.

Bulger tried to wedge another completion to Robinson, but DeAngelo Hall was sitting on the route. The incompletion forced the Rams to punt the ball back to the Redskins.

This time the Redskins got the ball back (at their 20, after Donnie Jones’ bid for the pin failed) and started moving it.  A swing pass to Ladell Betts for 25 yards got them rolling into Rams territory. Then came a big Jason Campbell gunned the ball to Malcolm Kelly for another first down.

Rather than settle for another field goal, the Redskins opted to try for a fourth-and-one conversion. With Portis running right through Rams middle linebacker James Laurinaitis, the Redskins got it.

With the Rams out of timeouts for the half, the Redskins kept pounding the ball and eating up clock. On fourth and less than a yard to inside the Rams 5, Redskins coach Jim Zorn opted to go for it again.

This time the Rams stuffed Portis and turned the ball back to the offense. But with 70-plus yards to go to reach field goal range and no time outs to use, the Rams had no chance to come back.

The Redskins closed out this singularly dull 9-7 victory.