How come it took 'em this long?

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The Carolina Panthers came into FedEx field yesterday with a 6-4 record and a share of the NFC South lead. This is why Joe Gibbs was so reluctant to change quarterbacks, even though the Redskins' offense was generating more boos than points -- because teams in the NFC can be as unremarkable as the Panthers and still be 6-4 and tied for first in their division.

In pro football's second-best conference, there isn't much difference between a 3-7 club that has just been bawled out by its coach -- in this case, the Snydermen -- and a 6-4 club that was one game away from the Super Bowl last year. The 3-7 club can even have a QB who's starting for just the second time in his career and still have a shot to win ... as Jason Campbell showed in the unexpected 17-13 victory over Carolina.

How easy would it have been for the Redskins to be 6-4 before yesterday -- and in contention for the NFC East crown? Pretty easy, judging from the way they ran the ball on the Panthers' formidable front four and held Jake Delhomme and Co. to 264 yards. Thus, Gibbs stuck with Mark Brunell through 0-2 and 2-5, knowing the Redskins could still get back in the playoff hunt, knowing that just about everybody on the schedule was as beatable and flawed as his own club.

The question hangs heavily in the air, though: Where was this game a few weeks ago, when the Redskins really needed it? Are they just one of those teams that only responds in circumstances of utter desperation? They were 5-6 last season before they got themselves together, and it took a 3-7 start this year to produce yesterday's effort.

"There are always questions like that," Rock Cartwright said. "You can't dwell on the past. You have to just keep moving forward."

That, it seems, is the challenge for the Redskins in the five games that remain -- to keep moving forward, to salvage something of this season, perhaps even to lay some groundwork for 2007. It's easier said than done with a young quarterback running the offense, but it beats the alternative: an old quarterback running the offense.

Besides, for the second week in a row, Campbell did more good than harm, which is about all you can ask of a first-timer. His numbers weren't as impressive as they were in Tampa --11-for-23 for 118 yards and two touchdowns, with one interception -- but that had more to do with the competition than anything else. The Panthers, after all, were coming off a 15-0 shutout of the Rams (another of the beatable, flawed clubs the Redskins will face in their remaining games).

Better still, good things seem to happen when No. 17 is at quarterback -- the winning touchdown, for instance. Campbell actually called the play himself because he couldn't hear what the coach was saying on his helmet radio. Then Chris Cooley turned an intermediate route into a 66-yard score by breaking two tackles. Oh, and did I mention it was Cooley's longest gain as a pro by 14 yards?

"I didn't know he was that fast," Campbell said.

And the Redskins coaches didn't know Campbell was this, well, functional. The only other time the offense got close to the goal line, he squeezed a 4-yard touchdown pass in to Antwaan Randle El on third-and-goal. Say this for the young fella: He makes the most of his opportunities. Against the Bucs, the Redskins reached the red zone only twice, but he threw for TDs both times.

"He's steppin' up in that pocket," said Gibbs, "and he's so big he can see things. He's capable of making athletic plays."

He's also, as the winning play showed, capable of improvising when technology fails. If I were Coach Joe, I'd seriously consider starting him next week, too. (But, hey, it's entirely up to him.)

It wasn't a pleasant week of practice for the Redskins. After Gibbs dressed them down, they spent the next few days knocking one another around like it was early in training camp. OK, maybe I'm exaggerating, but "it was more smashmouth" than usual, Renaldo Wynn said. "We needed to get back that mentality of playing physical."

Yesterday the Redskins rediscovered themselves -- for an afternoon, at least. Ladell Betts bobbed and weaved for 104 yards, the defense gave better than it got and the Redskins ended a month and a half of almost uninterrupted misery by defeating the division-leading Panthers.

It never should have taken them this long to get straightened out, though. And as the scores rolled in yesterday (Titans 24, Giants 21; Patriots 17, Bears 13, etc.) -- tightening the races in the NFC even further -- the Redskins had to be kicking themselves. In the NFC, where the "F" increasingly seems to stand for "fraudulent," it shouldn't be that difficult for any self-respecting team to make the playoffs.