OAKLAND, Calif. — All the progress the Washington Redskins made in recent weeks was obscured by three straight fourth-quarter collapses. Everything came together when the Redskins got to play a team struggling as much as they are in the Oakland Raiders.
Jason Campbell threw two touchdown passes to give Washington the lead, Quinton Ganther extended it with two fourth-quarter scores and Brian Orakpo helped secure the 34-13 victory Sunday by tying a franchise record with four sacks.
“We’ve got a lot of heart and a lot of pride,” Campbell said.
“The last couple weeks there have been opportunities for us to win all those games, and we feel like we beat our opponents, it just hasn’t come out on the scoreboard. We understand we’re not going to the playoffs, but at the same time, we’re building.” The Redskins (4-9) had lost three straight, blowing leads of six, eight and 10 points. Those losses came against upper-echelon teams in Dallas, Philadelphia and New Orleans, not the bottom-dwelling Raiders (4-9).
Washington took a 17-13 lead into the fourth quarter this week, but just built on it from there. Oakland had won two of three, led by fourth-quarter comebacks by Bruce Gradkowski, who replaced an ineffective JaMarcus Russell as the Raiders quarterback last month but was injured in this game.
There would be no such comeback this week. Ganther capped an 80-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 24-13.
Russell threw an interception to LaRon Landry on the next play and Ganther scored on another 1-yard run four plays later.
The Redskins then teed off on Russell, getting six of their eight sacks in the second half. It was the most sacks for Washington since getting eight against Dallas in 1990. It was also the team’s most lopsided win since a 21-point victory over Dallas in Joe Gibbs’ final regular-season game in 2007.
“This feels great,” Orakpo said. “Two sides of the ball are really playing well, and it’s just a testament to our team.
Regardless of what our record is and regardless of who we’re playing, we go out there and fight.” Russell, who lost his job last month after completing just 46.8 percent of his passes and committing 14 turnovers, entered to start the third quarter for Oakland after Gradkowski left with two injured knees.
Russell completed his first two passes to help set up a 53-yard field goal by Sebastian Janikowski that cut Washington’s lead to 17-13 midway through the third quarter. That was the highlight of the day for Russell, who finished 10 for 16 for 74 yards and an interception and was booed incessantly by the sparse crowd.
“He was definitely frustrated,” tight end Zach Miller said.
“We didn’t protect Bruce well today and we didn’t protect JaMarcus either. You can’t do that. You have to give your quarterback time to throw.” It was a rough day overall for the Raiders, who committed 14 penalties and lost by at least 20 points for the fifth time this season. They also assured themselves of a seventh straight losing season and have been outscored 119-23 in four games following a win this season.
“I feel for the guys here, because we don’t come into the week saying, ‘Well, we got our one, so who cares about this next one,”‘ cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha said. “Guys are really actually going out there saying, ‘Let’s get two. Let’s get three.’ And then for some reason it has always happened this way. You can’t put your finger on it. But this is one we thought we were gonna be able to get. Guys came in confident. That second-in-a-row thing got us again.” Campbell completed 16 of 28 passes for 222 yards and two touchdowns to Fred Davis. The second TD came at the end of one particularly frustrating sequence for the Raiders late in the first half. It started when a 27-yard pass to Louis Murphy on third-and-2 was overturned by replay.
Hiram Eugene then committed a false start before the punt and a 15-yard penalty for interfering with punt returner Antwaan Randle El. A personal foul on special teams coach John Fassel moved the ball out to the Washington 40.
Four plays later, Campbell threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Davis that gave the Redskins a 17-10 lead with 56 seconds remaining in the half.
NOTES: Dexter Manley, Ken Harvey and Phillip Daniels also had four sacks in a game for Washington. … The Raiders were penalized for 118 yards, their most in a game since having 149 in the season opener at New England in 2005. … Janikowski was well short on a 65-yard FG attempt at the end of the first half.
