Slow starts continually plague Raiders

But Collins has been able to recover and orchestrated a go-ahead drive in the final minutes of a 27-23 loss at Kansas City on Nov. 6, and led a game-winning drive in Sunday's 16-13 win at Washington.

"The one thing about Kerry is he has been through this so many times in terms of the ups and downs of playing in this league," coach Norv Turner said Monday. "He doesn't get rattled, doesn't get affected."

Collins has been a slow starter and fast finisher during much of the season for the Raiders (4-6). Collins is 83-for-138 for 1,014 yards, seven touchdowns and only one interception in the fourth quarter, for a 96.7 passer rating.

He's been even sharper when the game has been tight down the stretch, posting a 110.3 rating and throwing no interceptions in 62 fourth-quarter passes when the teams are within seven points of each other.

The key now is to translate that to the first half, when he's completing less than half of his passes and has thrown four of his seven interceptions this season.

Turner blamed a few dropped passes for Collins' slow start Nov. 13 against Denver, and the team couldn't finish it's drives against Kansas City, settling for three field goals in the opening half.

Against the Redskins, Turner said his quarterback took too many deep shots early to Randy Moss as he went 4-for-15 in the opening half and was sharper when he spread the ball around more.

"He was trying to get the ball to Randy up the field," Turner said. "He had a couple close that could have got in there. When we looked, we said, 'Hey that's good but there's people open underneath, people open that we can get some first downs.' When we got to those I think that's when we got some continuity."

The key to Sunday's win was that even when the offense struggled, the defense kept the Raiders in the game. Oakland held Washington's offense to a pair of field goals, gave up only 246 yards and shut the Redskins out in the second half.

The Raiders even forced three turnovers and Derrick Burgess had two sacks, including one on a fourth-down play from the Oakland 43 that ended Washington's late bid for a game-tying field goal attempt.

Turner singled out safety Renaldo Hill, young cornerbacks Fabian Washington and Nnamdi Asomugha, and Burgess as the players who excelled against the Redskins.

"I think defensively we've gotten better all year," Turner said. "I can't say enough about the way our defense played in the game and the way they're growing as a unit."

That's not the way these season as supposed to play out. After adding Moss and LaMont Jordan in the offseason in the offseason, the offense was supposed to carry the Raiders.

But the additions of Burgess, a free agent from Philadelphia, and Washington, a first-round draft pick, have proved just as important.

"When we started the offseason we know we had all these weapons coming. We couldn't worry about all that. The only thing we could do was worry about our defense," defensive lineman Bobby Hamilton said. "We know as a unit what we could do. As the season goes on, I feel like our defense is getting better. All we want to do is end it on a positive note."<