Washington Redskins Inside Slant

The Redskins will have their fourth starting running back in six games when fourth-year man Quinton Ganther gets the nod Sunday at Oakland.

"I'm getting the opportunity that I haven't had to show people what I can do," said Ganther, who wasn't even on the roster when No. 1 back Clinton Portis' concussion on Nov. 8 at Atlanta set off the series of changes at the position. "The longer you keep your foot in the door, the better opportunity you have and my opportunity came."

The opportunity has come because Portis never recovered and was placed on injured reserve on Tuesday, backup Ladell Betts followed suit by tearing two knee ligaments on Nov. 22 at Dallas and because Ganther outshone No. 3 back Rock Cartwright the past two games.

"He does a really nice job of pressing the hole and bursting through it," coach Jim Zorn said.

Ganther, who was signed, cut and re-signed between Oct. 20 and Nov. 11, outgained Cartwright 78-77 the past two weeks despite having 13 carries to the latter's 28.

"Anybody is disappointed when they get benched from ... an opportunity you were waiting on for your entire career," said Cartwright, who hadn't started since 2003, his second season. "But when you run the ball in spurts, two carries here, three carries there, you can't get hot. You guys can see it. The Dallas game, I got into a rhythm and we started moving the ball."

Cartwright did run 13 times for 67 yards against the Cowboys. He had 20 yards on five carries in the first six minutes last week against New Orleans but didn't see the ball again until after halftime.

"I get a couple carries early and then not another one until the second half, what do they expect?" Cartwright said. "That's crazy. But I don't control it, I'm not worried about it, and all I can do is go out and play special teams."

That's how Ganther has hung around the NFL into a fourth season despite having just 20 career carries before last week.

"It took me two years to really understand how this game works," said Ganther, drafted in the seventh round out of Utah by Tennessee in 2006. "If you're a low-round pick, you have to keep your foot in the door by playing special teams. Once I figured that out, I didn't worry about playing running back anymore. I was just teams, teams, teams and I became a great special teams player because of that."

At 5-foot-9 and 214 pounds, Ganther is an inch and a pound bigger than fellow seventh-rounder Cartwright, a longtime special teams stalwart. But Ganther, who was stuck behind Chris Johnson and LenDale White in Tennessee, is five years younger than his near-twin.

Said Redskins offensive coordinator Sherman Smith, the Titans' running backs coach during Ganther's first two seasons. "He's not the fastest guy in the world, but he runs hard. He learns well and doesn't make mistakes so he gives himself a chance to be successful."

SERIES HISTORY: 11th meeting. Raiders lead 7-3. The Raiders' 38-9 romp in Super Bowl XIX (January 1984) wasn't very memorable, but Washington's 37-35 victory earlier that season was. Joe Theismann and Jim Plunkett, who had dueled for the Heisman Trophy 13 years earlier, both had big days in a shootout at RFK Stadium that the Redskins won on Joe Washington's sliding end zone grab of a pass from Theismann with 33 seconds left.