"The director of my foundation was in town and before I went to bed he wanted me to call a doctor," Taylor said. "He saw the pain I was in and how uncomfortable I was. But I thought if I can get to sleep I'd be fine. I'm glad I didn't go to sleep."

At 3 a.m. Taylor called assistant trainer Larry Hess and was soon transported by ambulance to Virginia Hospital Center. He was thoroughly checked out and told he needed surgery as soon as possible.

"It's scary," Taylor said. "You feel fine. Then all of sudden, you have to get this taken care of. (The doctors told me) 'You'd be done forever. They said you'd get drop foot and you'd be done."

Redskins trainer Bubba Tyer said if the muscle bleeds as Taylor's was, the blood has nowhere to go and creates building pressure on the nerve that can only be relieved by an operation.

Taylor, who rushed back in two weeks from a sprained knee to play in Washington's season opener, has started 133 consecutive games. He didn't want to have the streak end, but eventually he relented.

"I was a little scared and didn't quite understand why it had to be done so suddenly," Taylor said. "I wanted to wait until the sun came up, I kept telling the doctor, 'Let's wait until the sun comes up and let me talk to some people' and they kept stressing how important it was to get it done right away. We got a hold of (Redskins team surgeon) Dr. (James) Andrews about 5 in the morning and he told me to get off the phone and let's do it so it can be done right away."

About 6 a.m., Taylor's calf was opened up with a six-inch incision in a 20-minute procedure that went so smoothly that it was closed up rather than left open.

"His was only in the lateral compartment so it's on the outside of his calf," Tyer said. "If you get it in all four compartments, that's when it becomes a real life-threatening or limb-threatening situation. You can have muscle damage and you can have nerve damage. It could be bad enough that you don't recover and you end up with a dropped foot."

Tyer has been with the Redskins for 37 years but had never before had a player with this condition. He said a handful of NFL players have had it in recent years, including a star linebacker he wouldn't name who missed just a week but played before the stitches were removed. That's something the Redskins don't want Taylor to do in the wake of former defensive tackle Brandon Noble's post-surgical staph infection that ended his career in 2005.

Instead, Taylor will definitely miss Sunday's NFC East showdown at Dallas. Beyond that, it's unclear.

"We looked at the wound today and it looks very good," Tyer said. "It's nice and clean and dry so it's healing properly. Each time we've seen him, he's getting better muscle function. It's responding real well. We expect him to be fine, if not this week. Hopefully next week or the (following) week."

SERIES HISTORY: 95th meeting. Cowboys lead series 56-36-2 but lost both playoff matchups. The Redskins crushed the defending champion Cowboys 26-3 in the 1972 NFC Championship Game at RFK Stadium behind two TD passes from QB Billy Kilmer to WR Charley Taylor to clinch their first Super Bowl trip.