Facing off against some of his former coaches, Redskins nose tackle Terrance Knighton had one of best games of the season against the Bears and even got his first full sack.
Washington Redskins nose tackle Terrance Knighton had some familiar faces on the Chicago Bears' sideline, and he made sure they remembered him after getting his first full sack of the season Sunday at Soldier Field.
On the Bears' first drive of the game, following a first down pass by quarterback Jay Cutler, Knighton broke through the line quickly to take Cutler down.
After getting up, Knighton had a look over to the Bears' sideline, where his former head coach in Denver – John Fox – was standing.
Fox was Knighton's head coach when they were together with the Denver Broncos.
"Coach Fox was my old coach, and obviously in the free agency period I thought they were going to give me a little love and they didn't," Knighton said. "I made sure they regretted it. It's a love-hate thing. I'm still blessed to have the opportunity to have played in a Super Bowl. Coach Fox is a great coach but ultimately you got to find something to light that fire underneath you."
No, he isn't going to rank at the top of statistical categories like tackles or sacks, but the 354-pounder fills his role, which is to clog running lanes, well.
"Look at my statistics; I'm on pace to get two or three like I do every year," Knighton said with a smile. "So I'll leave the double digits to Hatch [Jason Hatcher] and Bake [Chris Baker]."
For the first time this season, the Redskins secured a road victory on Sunday when they defeated the Bears 24-21.
While the Bears are third in the NFC North this season, Knighton knew going into the game that it wasn't going to be easy.
The Redskins jumped out to 14-point leads on two separate occasions, but the Bears would respond.
Check out these top defensive and special teams shots from the Washington Redskins' 2015 Week 14 matchup against the Chicago Bears Dec. 13, 2015, at Soldier Field.
"They are a resilient team," Knighton said. "I am familiar with their head coach. I know what he talks to teams about. How he prepares his team to play. They have a lot of good players. They have a lot of Pro Bowlers on offense. Their defense played a stout game. We knew it was going to be a dog fight, but we will enjoy this tonight and will get ready for Buffalo and try to put two together."
And even after giving up a 50-yard completion to wide receiver Alshon Jeffrey on the Bears' last drive of the game, the Redskins defense would hold Jay Cutler – who was hot in the second half – to incompletions on second and third down from the Redskins' 32-yard line.
With a chance to tie the game and possibly send it to overtime, the Bears trotted out former first-team All-Pro kicker Robbie Gould for a 50-yard field goal attempt.
Gould's kick would sail wide right.
"We were prepared for the situation we were in and it was about executing," Knighton said. "Executing good and the guys got together on the sideline and we were just talking about winning the game and finishing. Nobody's head was down and we had faith in our offense that we're going to finish it out, and they had faith in us that we were going to give them the opportunity to keep the ball."
Even with the Philadelphia Eagles winning on Sunday, keeping pace with the Redskins for first place in the NFC East, Knighton has a message for those who still doubt Washington's merit as a possible division-winning team.
"Don't count us out," he said. "We've got three games left, two out of three on the road and will have to have the same mentality we had coming in here and execute it. Really, we've got to win the rest of them."
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