Leak helps plug defense

The Washington Redskins have been like a sinking ship all season. And like so many nautical wrecks, the S.S. Redskin apparently developed a leak.

ESPN.com published a story over the weekend full of quotes from an anonymous player who trashed the Redskins’ defensive coaches, cited dissension within the staff and strongly criticized assistant head coach-defense Gregg Williams for his “arrogance.”

Williams was claiming credit for the top-10 rankings posted by his defense the previous two seasons but declining to accept blame for the collapse that left his unit ranked 30th entering yesterday’s game against the Carolina Panthers.

Cornerback Carlos Rogers said the article helped bring the players on defense closer together and credited it in part for the group’s strong showing yesterday.

The Redskins shut down Panthers receivers Steve Smith and Keyshawn Johnson. They controlled a running game that last week blistered the Rams for a Carolina-record 242 yards. They held the Panthers to just 264 total yards (95 below the Redskins’ season average) and 13 points, the defense’s stingiest performance this season. The result was a 17-13 upset of a team that had been tied for the lead of the NFC South.

“Whoever wrote it, thank you because we played good today,” said Rogers, who delivered the strongest performance of his two seasons with the club. “We’re in this together, players and coaches. We’ve got their back. They’ve got our back.”

Williams declined to comment about the article, but his veteran players were happy to discuss its inflammatory contents.

Cornerback Shawn Springs said “some of the things are very true” but added that he would never air such grievances in public because his father, former Dallas Cowboys running back Ron Springs, would kill him for doing so.

“If it was a player [who spoke anonymously], he should be out of here,” defensive tackle Cornelius Griffin said. “You don’t point fingers. You stay together and fight your way out of it.”

Defensive end Renaldo Wynn said he was stunned by what he read.

“I just can’t believe that a player would do something like that regardless of what issues you might have,” Wynn said. “You don’t break the football code of ethics. We’re family. What happens stays inside the locker room. That stuff has no place in the public eye.”

But Wynn agreed with Rogers that the nasty words were an inspiration.

“It definitely played a part in [the better effort],” Wynn said.

Defensive end Phillip Daniels said speaking anonymously made the leaker “a coward” and added, “We’ll never not let anything keep us together. If we’re letting something like that break us up, we’re nothing.”

Whatever the reason, a defense that had been nothing almost all season played like the fearsome unit it had been in its first two seasons under Williams.

Last week the Redskins made the laggard Bucs running game resemble that of the Lombardi Packers and rookie quarterback Bruce Gradkowski look like Tom Brady. Yesterday they made the dangerous duo of Smith and Johnson look like run-of-the-mill receivers and turned Jake Delhomme into a hesitant and frustrated passer. And they stopped cold the record-setting running game after a 28-yard gain by DeAngelo Williams in the early going.

Smith finally got Carolina into the end zone with 7:55 left on an 8-yard catch against Springs, completing a 15-play, 74-yard drive. The Redskins’ defense responded to that lapse by thwarting the Panthers on their final two possessions.

Free safety Sean Taylor, the defense’s most disappointing holdover, ended the first of those series by hogtackling receiver Drew Carter 2 yards shy of a first down. He stopped the final Panthers drive by picking off an errant Delhomme bomb intended for Smith.

“The way we’ve been playing, you were wondering, ’Do we still have that fire?’ ” Wynn said. “It was always in us. We just had to come out and be physical. Guys went out with the mind-set that they were going to whup the guy in front of them. We had that energy, that passion. Without a shadow of a doubt, we tackled better. We hadn’t come out with that same type of intensity in the second half, but we did today. For whatever reason, when people count us out, we play our best.”

For one day at least, the problems that have enveloped this defense all year played to its advantage.