ASHBURN, Va. (CBSDC) — After a week of hobbling around his team’s training facility with a bone bruise in his right knee all of last week, left tackle Trent Williams returned to the Redskins’ lineup and played through pain on Sunday afternoon.

“It was sore as a bleep yesterday,” he said with a smile. “But I’m good now. I’m getting better.”

Williams made several key blocks — including one on an Alfred Morris 39-yard touchdown carry — in the running game while helping Washington amass 160 yards on the ground.

“As a captain, it was important for me to be out there,” Williams said after the game. “I feel like I owed it to this team, I owed it to this city to get out there and battle through the pain.”

But when asked if his 2011 suspension for a failed drug test was the reason for him to feel that way on Wednesday, Williams confirmed that he still thinks he needs to make up for his past transgressions.

“That’s a driving force behind a lot of things that I do as of now,” Williams said about his suspension last December. “I made a mistake and I kind of used it as a learning experience and I alienated my team for four games. I was a captain at the time. That made me feel even worse.”

Voted a captain again this season, Williams is attempting to prove that he’s a changed person.

“This year I’m just trying to prove to them that I’ve grown up a lot,” the former fourth-overall pick said.  “That’s not me anymore.”