Pretty, ugly for Redskins

His team’s defense had taken the field with a much-needed and renewed passion to harass a quarterback in his first NFL start.

His kicker was thrust into double duty when the punter suffered a first-quarter injury.

His battered running back was grinding his way to his best game of the season despite being pounded on every play.

Yet Washington Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell kept turning the football over to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Three Campbell giveaways - one fumble and two interceptions - played a part in the Redskins heading into the home locker room at halftime scoreless, down 10 and staring at a second hideous loss in as many weeks.

“At halftime, I was like, ‘If we don’t pull this one out, I don’t know what I’m going to do on Monday,’ ” Campbell said. “I might just have hibernated. You might not have seen me the rest of the week.”

With the support of coach Jim Zorn, who said he did not consider benching him, Campbell threw another interception (giving him a career-high three), but his two third-quarter touchdown passes helped propel the Redskins past Tampa Bay 16-13 on Sunday at FedEx Field.

“Today, Jason really grew to being a leader of this team,” said running back Clinton Portis, who overcame a calf injury to rush for 98 yards. “For Jason to hold his head up after four turnovers and everybody continuing to fight, that was the best thing to happen today.”

The Redskins (2-2) scored 16 unanswered points, starting with Shaun Suisham’s 42-yard field goal before Campbell’s scoring passes of 17 yards to Chris Cooley and 59 yards to Santana Moss.

The maligned defense gave up only one touchdown (a 10-yard drive) and sealed the win when rookie Jeremy Jarmon forced a Clifton Smith fumble that Chris Horton recovered with 48 seconds remaining.

Although the locker room had the same kind of “a win’s a win” feeling as two weeks ago after the St. Louis victory, the win over the still-searching Buccaneers (0-4) at least should quiet down the public speculation about Zorn’s job… until the next defeat.

“This gets us just one week of relief,” strong safety Reed Doughty said. “Anything can happen on a winning streak and right now, we’re on a one-game streak and hope to make it two games next week.”

A two-game losing streak seemed in the offing at halftime. The Redskins’ offensive production consisted of two punts, two interceptions, one fumble, 99 yards and no points.

The deficit could have been at least 16-0, but Tampa Bay kicker Mike Nugent missed field goals of 48 and 49 yards. Josh Johnson’s 8-yard pass to Antonio Bryant and Nugent’s 37-yard field goal as the first half expired gave the Buccaneers (0-4) hope.

Despite the lack of production, Zorn said he didn’t think about inserting backup quarterback Todd Collins.

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