Mike's Corner

LANDOVER, Md. (AP) Clinton Portis did cartwheels. LaVar Arrington was close to tears. Joe Gibbs' paranoia about a possible upset faded quickly.
After five nail-biting games to start the season, the Washington Redskins unloaded their psychological baggage on the hapless San Francisco 49ers. All that had gone wrong went right Sunday in a 52-17 victory over the NFC's worst team.
The Redskins (4-2) led 35-7 at halftime, piled up 448 yards and scored on seven of their first nine possessions to snap a two-game losing streak. Mark Brunell completed 13 of 20 passes for 252 yards and three touchdowns. Mike Sellers caught scoring passes of 2 and 19 yards. Santana Moss had a 32-yard TD reception and maintained his torrid start with five passes for 112 yards, his fourth 100-yard game in five weeks.
Portis ran 19 times for 101 yards and scored his first three touchdowns of the season, a huge relief to a player who put some self-effacing humor into a scoreless season at practice last week by donning a wig and glasses that made him resemble Doc Brown from "Back to the Future." Portis did little jigs after his first and third TDs and performed two cartwheels after his 1-yard score that made it 21-7 late in the second quarter.
There were equal - if not greater - cheers for Arrington, the three-time Pro Bowl linebacker whose benching created as much distraction as quarterback controversy. Arrington didn't play a down on defense the last two weeks, but assistant coach Gregg Williams rewarded the popular player's recent improvement in practice by using him mostly in long-yardage situations. Arrington had a team-high nine tackles, including a 7-yard loss when he stopped receiver Rasheed Marshall on a reverse.
The points were the most for the Redskins since a 56-17 win over Atlanta on Nov. 10, 1991. They forced two turnovers, their first since the opening game of the season. They had five sacks - doubling their number for the entire season.