The Raiders finally figured out an elixir to stopping opposing tight ends and it involved a solid dose of rookie linebacker Neiron Ball.

Ball provided excellent coverage on Broncos’ tight end Owen Daniels on Peyton Manning’s pass that was intercepted in the end zone by Charles Woodson. Ball also broke up a pass intended for Daniels and contributed to shutting out Daniels, who didn’t have a catch on five targets.

“Since we’ve been getting killed on that subject, I guess we’ll just say we finally got it right,” said Del Rio, whose grown increasingly frustrated at questions about the team’s struggles against tight ends.

The numbers couldn’t be overlooked though. In the first four games, tight ends had caught 32 passes for 388 yards and six touchdowns so Sunday’s shut down was a welcome sight.

“I don’t think the tight ends are doing anything specific that we haven’t seen already,” safety TJ Carrie said. “It’s just us making the mental errors, us making eye violations and not playing our technique and allowing them to do things that we should cover that’s basic knowledge for us on our side. Mentally I think we were very prepared and sharp today and executed that.”

Carrie was impressed with Ball’s work.

“That guy is very athletic,” Carrie said. “He’s smart and he knows what he’s doing. He made sound decisions. You’ve got to give him credit for what he did today.”