Redskins cornerback Josh Norman rebounds from terrible week with solid game

It’s been a rough week for Washington Redskins cornerback Josh Norman, the onetime reigning world champion of trash talk turned team malcontent. Coming into Sunday’s game against his old team, the Carolina Panthers, Norman hadn’t had an interception in 20 games dating back to 2016. Even worse, he got benched for the second half of Monday night’s game because he was listening to music rather than the halftime speech of head coach Jay Gruden.

It’s safe to say he’s had better weeks coming into Sunday’s 23-17 win over the Carolina Panthers. But once the game started, he suddenly became invaluable again.

Norman’s very bad week

Against the New Orleans Saints, Norman had one of his worst games of his career, giving up two touchdowns when targeted in the first half. He was then benched to start the second half, in what was later revealed to be retribution for wearing headphones during Gruden’s halftime talk.

Norman had drawn heat from multiple quarters for his play, which is to be expected when you’re in the third year of a five-year, $75 million contract. His former teammate, DeAngelo Hall, didn’t hold back in his criticism:

“It comes a point where you just gotta play football,” Hall told the Washington-area sports radio show The Sports Junkies on Tuesday. “Josh is, I think, in love with being a celebrity right now and not necessarily being a football player. Josh needs to kind of refocus, get back on the grind, get back to the basics technique-wise and really work, because he’s not going to live off the reputation of being Josh Norman.

“Teams are starting to go at him and he’s either going have to make plays, or somebody else is going to get an opportunity to play. I think we’ve seen the coaching staff kind of take that approach. There’s no coming back from being benched. That already happened, he knows it, the team knows it, the outside world knows it. For him, he has to get focused on just playing football and playing to the best of his ability.”

Norman’s bad week turns good

It’s amazing, though, how a couple breaks can change perspective. Early in the second quarter of Washington’s game against Carolina, Norman intercepted his old teammate Cam Newton for his first interception since 2016. And on the Panthers’ next possession, Norman punched the ball out of DJ Moore’s hands.

Granted, both turnovers resulted in a total of only three points for Washington, but you can’t blame Norman for that. His performance was enough to impress even a few of his critics:

It’s a long way to go back from the sting of a mid-game benching and a 20-game interception-less stream, but this is a good start for Norman.

____
Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.

More from Yahoo Sports:
• 4 teams jump out in College Football Playoff race
• Sources: No Curry suspension after near altercation
• Pat Forde: Takeaways from chaos-filled day in college football
• Report: Hernandez was ‘sexually molested as a young boy’