LANDOVER, Md. -- Tom Brady and Randy Moss were putting on a clinic reminiscent of their record-breaking 2007 season on Friday night against the Washington Redskins in the New England Patriots' third preseason game.

Until Albert Haynesworth put an abrupt stop to it.

Haynesworth, the Redskins' high-priced, 350-pound defensive tackle, flattened Brady as he threw a deep ball intended for Greg Lewis on the final play of New England's final drive of the first half. Brady landed awkwardly on his throwing shoulder, and walked off the field stretching the joint.

It did not appear that he was tended to on the Patriots' bench by members of the team training staff, and before heading to the locker room for halftime he was tossing the ball around.

When the Pats returned to the sidelines at FedEx Field for the start of the second half, Brady was with the team, but soon was walking back to the locker room with a team doctor. The doctor would return, but Brady did not.

Speaking of returns, it was a Pat Chung punt return that ensured that everyone was spared preseason overtime, and allowed New England to leave with a 27-24 win.

An announcement on Brady's status was not made until there were just over four minutes remaining in the game, and that update was a simple -- and obvious -- "sore shoulder."

After the game, Bill Belichick said of Brady, "I'm sure he has some bumps and bruises like everybody else that played the game."

Asked if the team intended for Brady to play into the third quarter, Belichick replied, "We wanted to look at Kevin (O'Connell) and Andrew (Walter) in the second half."

Before Haynesworth violently intervened, however, Brady proved yet again -- and most emphatically -- that he is back to his old self, especially when it comes to his connection with Moss.

The quarterback went 12-for-19 for 150 yards and two touchdowns. Half of those completions and both of those scoring passes ended up in Moss' sure hands.

The first touchdown came in the first quarter, on first-and-10 from the Redskins' 26-yard line. Brady saw something at the line of scrimmage, and made a pre-snap change that resulted in Moss seeing single coverage against corner DeAngelo Hall. Brady put the ball on a rope and caught Moss in stride a few feet from the goal line. Hall grabbed Moss around the waist, but his momentum carried him into the end zone for the first time this preseason.

On New England's next possession the duo struck again.

It was the first play of the second quarter, third-and-one for the Pats from the Washington 27. Not content to go for the one yard and pick up a first down, New England went for them all.

With the pocket collapsing, Brady stood tall -- a welcome sight after looking a bit shaky after getting hit by the Bengals the week before -- and threw another perfect strike to Moss in the end zone.

Moss' six receptions went for 90 yards.

"I just lost sight of him," Redskins safety LaRon Landry said. "(Moss) just ran a great route, and Tom did a great job of coming back to him because he looked at him and then I thought he was going away. Then he started scrambling, I took my eyes off him, and he got loose."

As Moss and Brady picked apart the Washington secondary, Laurence Maroney quietly had a solid game. He rushed the ball five times in the first half for 19 yards, and though his average of 3.8 yards per carry is nothing to do cartwheels about, Washington does boast one of the top run defenses in the NFL.

Where Maroney looked best was receiving passes. He had three catches for 30 yards, and is able to utilize his speed when he gets the ball in space. Maroney also returned the opening kickoff 35 yards.

Defensively, New England made things too easy for Redskins starter Jason Campbell on Washington's first possession: Campbell was 4-for-6 for 53 yards on a seven-play scoring drive that ended with a one-yard touchdown run by Marcus Mason after rookie Darius Butler was flagged for pass interference in the end zone, a penalty that gave the Skins 23 yards.

It was the first time this preseason the Pats' starting defense had allowed a touchdown.

However, New England did seem to tighten things up against the run. After allowing both the Eagles and the Bengals to have big nights rushing in their first two exhibition games, the Redskins were held to 116 total yards rushing. Sixty-two of those came in the fourth quarter, when the third-stringers for both sides were on the field.

"Definitely it's something to build on," Ty Warren said. "We want to make sure when anyone comes in that that level of play is maintained. In that sense, we still have work to do."

The play of the night on defense came from Jonathan Wilhite. The second-year corner jumped in front of a goal-line pass from backup quarterback Colt Brennan and returned it 99 yards for a touchdown.

"I was playing my zone and the ball came to me. I got some good blocks (downfield) from the defensive line. That's that really amazed me, was those guys running with me," Wilhite said. "(But) everything happened so fast, I can't even remembered what I saw."

Chung, who fumbled away a punt in the first half that was recovered by Butler - the same scenario played out last week against Cincinnati - had a 33-yard return late in the game, setting up a 30-yard game-winning field goal from Stephen Gostkowski with eight seconds to go.

"They're a really good football team," Belichick said of Washington. "They've got a lot of talented players, and I thought our guys hung in and battled pretty well here on the road. It's good to see us make enough plays to win."