Adrian Peterson entered Sunday’s game against the Panthers with a trio of injuries. The good news is that he exited the game with only three injuries.The bad news is that he spent the entire game dealing with the pain of a dislocated shoulder that he suffered on Monday night against the Saints. It actually affected his performance early in the game.“It was an outside zone run Cheap Luke Kuechly Jersey ,” Peterson told PFT by phone on his way home after the team’s 23-17 win. “I did a great job of being patient like they tell me to do. When I made the cut back to the right, I felt myself hesitate twice before getting hit.”Peterson said that, after three or four carries, he recognized that it wasn’t going to get any better.“It’s going to be painful,” Peterson told himself. “I just need to fight through it. Every time I got hit I could feel it.”Peterson felt it all week. He said that the challenge was to prevent blood from building up in the shoulder and making it stiff. The goal was to keep the shoulder moving. Which meant that he couldn’t do much sleeping.“I was up at 3:00 and 5:00 every night,” Peterson said, adding that the rehab efforts included the very low-tech device of Peterson’s wife digging into the shoulder with his knuckles and elbows.In the end, it worked. Peterson said he knew that by Saturday he’d be able to play, and he generated 97 rushing yards on 17 carries. He said it was important to show the team that they have a “warrior” who will do whatever it takes to play.Most importantly, Washington picked up their third win of the year, which keeps them in first place in the NFC East. Washington’s defense had several busted plays and bad coverages on Monday night, the apparent product of miscommunications. Coach Jay Gruden, despite have an offensive background Cheap Christian McCaffrey Jersey , takes full responsibility for the mistakes.“I’m聽ultimately responsible,” Gruden told reporters on Thursday.“I don鈥檛 know if it’s about simplifying or just communicating better, making sure everybody is on the same page that鈥檚 all,” he added. “We’ve been doing some of the same stuff since training camp that we messed up, which is a little mind-boggling. But we’ll get it fixed up. [Defensive backs coach Torrian] Gray and [assistant defensive backs coach James] Rowe and [defensive coordinator Greg] Manusky, they’ll do a good job of fixing it up. It was an abysmal performance by a lot for people not just the secondary, not just the defense, but the offense included. I think we all have a lot of work to do.”Gruden was asked to explain how the communication can, and will, improve.“Well it starts in the film room, film study, and then we go out and practice for a reason,” Gruden said. “Give them different looks Cheap Kawann Short Jersey , as many different looks as we can, and communicate and it carries over on the field. There’s only so much we can do. There’s only so many looks we can give them. We’re always going to see something new. The Saints gave us a few different formations with [Mark] Ingram and [Alvin] Kamara in at the same time, a couple different things. But nothing that should鈥檝e been that confusing.”Gruden doesn’t believe the problems on Monday night were the product of being confused in the moment.“I think they’re coached up and for whatever reason we had a couple busts,” Gruden said. “You know, three or four of them that cost us big time. It’s up to us as coaches to make sure that doesn鈥檛 happen because the play is a reflection of us. We have to make sure they totally understand and have a good grip on what they’re doing. Then on game day, they have to go out and execute.”They’ll get another chance to do that on Sunday, against a Panthers team that, for some reason, is a one-point underdog. Which means that the oddsmakers have faith in the Washington defense to turn it around.Based on Monday night, that’s a whole lot of faith.