To the naked eye, Sunday's game didn't look good for the Broncos defense, but...

DENVER — “The No Fly Zone is dead!” Proclaimed a fan seated in front of the press box as Derek Carr completed yet another pass.

At the moment, it felt harsh but true. After all, Carr had as many incompletions all day (3) as Case Keenum had in his first four throws.

The 125-million-dollar quarterback’s line on the day was eye-popping: 29-of-32, 288 yards, one touchdown, no turnovers. For the 76,000 fans in the stands, it was as frustrating as all get out.

“I do not think Derek threw an incompletion,” Case Keenum said after the game with his eyebrows raised. “I never saw the ball hit the ground when he was out there. I think that it’s unbelievable to play a quarterback like that.”

As crazy as it sounds, though, that may have been part of the plan for the Broncos on the day.

“We just knew that was going to throw dink and dunks all game,” cornerback Chris Harris Jr. said afterward. “He threw a lot of ‘Now’ routes, a lot of screens, things like that.”

So, if they knew it was coming, why not take it away?

“We just worry about the points,” Harris explained. “We tried to kind of change our mentality a little bit. We’ve always been about yardage here, but last year our points-per-game number was too high. As long as we can hold anyone to 19 points, we should win every game.”

The “No Score Zone” doesn’t have quite the ring, but Harris makes a great point. As ugly as it felt, 19 is a winning number, especially at home.

Joe Woods decided to live with the underneath stuff and put his trust in his unit’s tackling, third-down defense and red-zone defense. The result? Oakland was 3-of-10 on third downs, 1-of-2 in scoring touchdowns in the red zone and, again, only put up 19 points.

Unorthodox but effective.

Denver wanted Carr to go quick, quick, quick and when it mattered most, they baited him into another quick throw. On 3rd-and-8 with just under three minutes left and only one timeout in Denver’s pocket, Carr and the Raiders decided to throw the ball, attempting to end the game right then and there.

Woods once again trusted his secondary, sending an all-out blitz that left every cover man without any help.

“We want to force him to get rid of the ball fast, and he threw it fast, exactly what we wanted him to do,” Harris said, speaking of the play but encompassing the gameplan as a whole.

After Martavis Bryant hauled in the quick toss, Bradley Roby took him down instantly, forcing the Raiders to punt the ball away, leading to Denver’s game-winning field goal drive.

Just the way they drew it up. Really.

The No Fly Zone is dead? Hold off on that. After all, they held a quarterback under 300 net passing yards for the 36th-consecutive game on Sunday. Carr was cruising, but everybody knows cars can’t fly.