An ugly win, but Washington embraces it

LANDOVER, MD.

A snapshot of the Washington Redskins' fragile state of mind, here at the quarter-pole of the NFL season:

Sunday, amid the usual postgame scatter of weary participants on the FedEx Field turf, Redskins running back Mike Sellers bear-hugged his coach Jim Zorn, spoke vigorously into Zorn's ear, then let loose a holler to mark Washington's 16-13 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Sellers' message to the harried Zorn, whose team is 2 for 2 in being booed into halftime by the traditionally fawning home folks?

"That's personal, bro," Sellers said.

I'm thinking it went like this: "Coach, we just beat a team that might not win a game. They missed two field goals. They turned our quarterback over four times. Their own quarterback was a nervous, first-time starter who barely looked downfield before fleeing like his shoes were on fire.

"So where's the Super Bowl this year?"

OK, maybe not. It's safe to assume, though, that adrenaline born of knee-weakening relief fueled Sellers' sleeper-hold on Zorn.

That narrow win over the dreadful Rams two weeks ago? That loss to the woeful Lions last week? Bad enough by themselves. But together, they were a highly charged prelude to Washington's "win-or-keep-walking" afternoon.

Jason Campbell, at least, wasn't afraid to admit it.

"At halftime I was like, if we don't pull this one out, I don't know what I'm doing Monday," Campbell said jokingly, but candidly. "I might just hibernate. You might not even see me for the rest of the week."

Campbell, you see, endured desperate, first-half darkness - a fumble, two of his three interceptions and 5-of-12 passing. The Redskins, offensively inept, trailed at the half 10-0. Ill-will resonated once more around the cavernous stadium.

Zorn, though, stuck with Campbell and the game plan, such as it was. Campbell persevered. And he led three third-quarter scoring drives, the last capped by the game-winning, 59-yard bomb to Santana Moss over Campbell's chief tormentor, cornerback Aqib Talib, who had all three interceptions.

"I was like, 'Coach, I'm gonna get it together. I don't know what's going on right now,' " Campbell said. "He played the position. He's probably had one of those days. He understands how important it is to keep the guy in there and let him fight through it."

Zorn's been there, you bet, if throwing six picks in a game as a rookie 33 years ago counts as "one of those days." So Zorn swore he gave no thought to pulling Campbell. And Campbell swore to start the second half mentally fresh, intent on doing only his job a play at a time.

And so he did, although Campbell credited DeAngelo Hall's deft interception of Tampa's skittish one, Josh Johnson, early in the third quarter for emboldening him.

Hall's pick set up the Redskins (2-2) at Tampa's 41. They managed only an ice-breaking field goal from it.

But Campbell cashed the next two possessions - a 17-yard TD pass to Chris Cooley, and his long, perfectly thrown clincher to Moss - before the Redskins' defense continued holding the Bucs to four first downs, 85 yards and three points in the second half.

That said, Sunday did little but slow, for now, the Zorn Unemployment Countdown Clock.

And in the Redskins' relieved locker room, it cranked up the "A Win is a Win in the NFL" chorus - the song that inevitably lifts whenever the winning team stinks just a little less than the losing team.

Tom Robinson, (757) 446-2518, tom.robinson@pilotonline.com