Redskins Turn Up Defense

The Washington Redskins, awful on defense in the first four games, turned terrific Sunday night.

In a 24-10 victory over the Arizona Cardinals, who lost quarterback Jake Plummer because of a broken finger, Redskin rookie Champ Bailey intercepted three passes and returned one of them 59 yards for a touchdown.

“I knew it was time for us to go out there and get some big plays,” Bailey said of the defense.

Arizona Coach Vince Tobin said Plummer, injured when his right ring finger stuck in the helmet of blitzing linebacker Shawn Barber in the third quarter, will miss four to six weeks.

With a bye last week, Washington hired 72-year-old defensive specialist Bill Arnsparger to try to shore up a unit that was ranked 31st out of 31 NFL teams, and the Redskins were vastly improved against an Arizona offense that has struggled all season.

“He’s another coach, another good football coach, another set of eyes in the press box,” Washington Coach Norv Turner said. “We didn’t have the assignment errors or the technique errors we were having before the bye week.”

The Redskins (4-1) had the No. 2 offense in the NFL entering the game, but quarterback Brad Johnson had a difficult night, throwing his first two interceptions of the season.

Johnson finally got the offense going on a 12-play, 90-yard drive, putting Washington ahead, 17-3, on a one-yard touchdown pass to tight end Stephen Alexander with 1:20 left in the third quarter.

Arizona (2-4) went 91 yards in nine plays to cut the lead to 17-10 on a 10-yard pass from Plummer’s backup, Dave Brown, to Rob Moore with 6:59 to play. But the Cardinals couldn’t move the ball on their next possession, and the Redskins put the game away with Skip Hicks’ 14-yard touchdown run with 2:03 remaining.