The day after he rallied the Washington Redskins past the Indianapolis Colts in his NFL debut, rookie quarterback Colt Brennan went to a movie ... and said he saw a young fan wearing a Colt Brennan jersey.

On the surface, some things, it would seem, never change for the former University of Hawai'i star.

One year he is surgically slicing up the University of Washington in a crowd well represented in his green and black No. 15 Warrior jerseys. The next he is picking apart the Colts and there is a run on burgundy and gold No. 5 Redskins jerseys.

Two events a mere eight months apart, but the showing against Indianapolis had the look of a seminal performance for Brennan. As import goes, this was probably as big an exhibition game as he will play.

After the disaster that was the 41-10 Sugar Bowl blowout and all the questions that followed it, Brennan needed exactly the kind of performance that his 9-of-10 passing, 123-yard, two-touchdown effort added up to. Both for his critics and, you suspect, for himself. "I really wanted to go out there and do something right from the start," Brennan acknowledged.

The gruesome night in the Superdome began a seven month free-fall of sorts for Brennan, who saw his draft stock sink and the doubts about his pro credentials skyrocket. Too slight, too awkward a throwing motion, a system QB ... you name it and the time spent as a pinata for the Georgia defense served to reinforce every criticism that had been whispered about him.

Throw in the offseason hip surgery and, for a sixth-round draft choice and presumptive third-string quarterback, Brennan was hauling some heavy baggage to camp with the Redskins. "There'd been too much negativity over those months," Brennan said.

What lurked in the corners of his own mind might have been even more critical. Dispatching the doubts more urgent. For all the hopeful words he'd come up with, after the confidence-shaking Jan. 1 night against the Bulldogs how could Brennan not have felt the need to prove or, at least, reassert his talents?

In that, Brennan needed something to go well as much as Redskins rookie head coach Jim Zorn, the man who had invested a critically attacked draft choice in him. Turns out it could have hardly been scripted better for either of them.

This week there is lowered volume on the criticism of Brennan being a "system" quarterback and guy with an awkward throwing motion. No longer is the run on Brennan jerseys ($74.99) Internet driven from Hawai'i. Many of the 14 official Redskins stores in the district, Virginia and Maryland, say the jerseys are hard to keep on the shelves.

"After the other night, they are going to be even harder (to find)," said a clerk at the North Bethesda, Md., branch.

Who knows, if this keeps up, the Redskins might make back Brennan's $96,800 signing bonus in jersey sales.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.