OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ó The Washington Redskins had no trouble holding onto a fourth-quarter lead against JaMarcus Russell and the Oakland Raiders.
Jason Campbell threw two touchdown passes to give Washington the lead, and Quinton Ganther put it away by running for two fourth-quarter scores in the Redskins’ 34-13 victory Sunday.
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 against Russell and the Raiders. Oakland had won two of three, led by fourth-quarter comebacks by Bruce Gradkowski, who replaced an ineffective Russell as the Raiders quarterback last month but was injured in this one.
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. Rookie Brian Orakpo finished with four sacks to help the Redskins post their most lopsided win since a 21-point win over Dallas in Joe Gibbs’ final regular-season game in 2007.
Russell, who lost his job last month after completing just 46.8 percent of his passes and committing 14 turnovers, entered the game to start the third quarter for Oakland after Gradkowski injured a knee in the first half.
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 was booed at almost every opportunity by the sparse crowd.
It was a rough day overall for the Raiders, who committed 14 penalties.