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They were together in the FedEx Field mud Sunday afternoon, with 11 Washington Redskins defenders hooked on what would be a 23-17 win against the Carolina Panthers. Quarterback Cam Newton of the Panthers, one of the most dangerous players in the NFL, stood in front of them. Behind them, there was only 16 meters of land and an end zone.
The dashboard indicated fourth down. Thirty-eight seconds remained. The crowd of 60,482 people roared as loudly as a crowd roared in this stadium this year.
"Get them out of the field!" Cried the Redskins on the ground.
"Everyone knew what was at stake," linebacker Zach Brown said. "Whatever it is, we had to get them off the field. If we did not do it then [they’d score a touchdown] and we would be 2-3 and nobody wanted to be 2-3. "
Then Newton leaned back and threw. The Redskins players held their breath, then burst with joy as the shot fell safely behind cornerback Josh Norman. They celebrated so loudly that one of the officials launched a penalty flag. For Washington players jumping and dancing across the field, it was not serious. They needed this victory. As Brown said, they needed to be 3-2 and get back to first place in the NFC East.
[Svrluga: Win was gutty, yet limitations of an Alex Smith-led offense are starting to show]
Six months had passed since the disaster of Monday night's 43-19 defeat against the saints. Everything had gone wrong in New Orleans, especially in defense, which gave up what coach Jay Gruden estimated was 150 yards over three games where defenders were in bad cover. None of these players were more disconcerted than Norman, who was responsible for the most blatant of these mistakes and was beaten Monday for a series for wearing headphones during Gruden's half-time discussion.
"We took to heart what happened Monday," linebacker Josh Harvey Clemons said Sunday afternoon. After the team returned to its training center around 4 pm on Tuesday, the defensive players called a series of meetings that they considered challenging. The first was arranged later in the day by Norman, and the star corner told the other defensive backs: "We just had the chance to maneuver," adding, "It starts with me.
The second was deeper. On Thursday, linebacker Pernell McPhee asked all defensive players to dine at an expensive restaurant. They had to be together, he said. McPhee took the note. "The rating was high, man," security D.J. Swearinger said.
"Whenever you're blown away, you have to go back to the board and make sure it does not happen again," added Swearinger as he stood in front of his locker wearing a Sean Taylor jersey, which he He said he had worn because he thought it was "time" to invoke some of the harshness of the safety of the ex-Redskins.
"Dinner was great," Norman later said as he walked down a hallway under the bleachers. "Everyone came together. It was what we needed. "
Many Washington players were wondering how they would react to Monday's test. The following days were a constant buzz of criticism. Many defensive players are young and some of their more experienced teammates have wondered if players would start blaming each other. Instead, their training on Wednesday and Thursday was fierce, and they arrived confident Sunday against Newton, who has had great success against the Redskins in the past.
[Josh Norman follows criticism-filled week by forcing two turnovers against his former team]
Their plan was to prevent Newton from running because he can be as dangerous as a runner as he passes. At the beginning of the game, their plan worked. Under pressure and unable to separate in the first quarter, he managed a hesitant pass that Norman stole for an interception. Later, Norman hit the Panthers catcher, D.J. Moore's hands for a fumble recovered by linebacker Mason Foster. These two games, as well as another previous Moore fumble (forced on a punt return) might have been the difference in a close match.
Newton had 275 yards and 43 more runs, but many of them came to a close after Washington had 17-0 and 20-9 in the lead before falling behind.
The Redskins attack still unable to do much against an aggressive run against the Carolina pass – quarterback Alex Smith had only accumulated 163 yards – Washington had to rely on what became a formula Familiar in the first weeks of this season: Accumulate a fast forward, straddle Adrian Peterson and hope the defense will hold.
Just like the defense struggling to keep the season going, Peterson was in trouble this week. He sprained his shoulder during the defeat against the Saints and swore to play Sunday night. But as the week passed and his shoulder ached, he hesitated on that promise. Nevertheless, he ran for 97 yards in 17 races against the Panthers – several times, waving through tackles as punters hit him, each shot at his shoulder increasing the pain.
[Sunday’s game summary: Redskins 23, Panthers 17]
"The pain was constant," said Peterson returning to his locker after the match.
Then he shook his head and smiled.
"It's what it is, man," he says.
In the room around him, the players were happy but there was no cry of joy. "We knew it was going to be a grinder," Peterson said a few minutes ago. And that was. Washington won because of his run, with three goals from Dustin Hopkins (the longest being 56 yards) and a defense that did not collapse in the days following the defeat of the Saints, then that everything could have been bad.
Late in the day, Norman was standing in the hallway in front of the locker room. He added that the information that he was wearing his earphones during Gruden's halftime conversation was correct. "All but the end," he says.
It was not clear what he meant by the end.
It was perhaps at this point that the Redskins' defense pulled back against his goal line to stop at 16 yards from the break.
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