Pollard says Chiefs have to fight back
C hiefs safety
Bernard Pollard has a simple message for himself and his Chiefs teammates: Start fighting back.
That’s the only way to avoid lackluster efforts such as the one Sunday against Carolina.
“We have to fight,” Pollard said. “We got to learn how to fight back.
“Speaking for the defensive players, I mean, look at what Carolina did Sunday. They went out and lined up against us and they see us trying to throw the ball, and they go knock it down. They see us try to run the ball, and they stuff it.
“That’s what we got to do. We have to be that team.”
Pollard believes everyone on the team needs to start growing up fast.
“We’ve got young guys but … ,” he said. “We’ve got to start now. This is going to be a week that won’t be like a bye week.”
Pollard said it’s still a mystery how the Chiefs could have played so poorly in the 34-0 rout by Carolina.
“I honestly could not believe what took place,” he said. “The things they were doing, things we were doing. We were flabbergasted on the sideline. I can’t believe we were the ones who were getting hit.
“Where it got to me was the second half, to see the same things keep happening. That was the point where I saw the frustration.”
Pollard insists the team wasn’t flat at the beginning.
“There was energy coming out of the locker room,” he said. “But we have to get serious when we put our hands in the dirt. When we get hit, we have to turn around and hit back.
“It stinks to go 0-3, then we turn the table, we get it against Denver. Then we fall back, and get hit again.”
Ratings bomb
Hardly a surprise, but the Chiefs’ Nielsen rating for the Panthers game was not good. And it’s likely the rating started out OK but as the dreadful game wore on Sunday, viewers bailed and the rating diminished greatly.
The final number was a season-low 23.2, sliding under the 23.4 from the Chiefs-Falcons game.
That 23.2 is now the lowest rating since the Chiefs posted a 20.7 for the Chiefs-Jets on Nov. 11, 2001.
It seems very likely that we’ll see a Chiefs rating dip below 20.0 sometime this season.
MU ratings up
Meanwhile, the Missouri-Nebraska game on ESPN on Saturday night scored an impressive 12.9 rating.
Even the K-State-Texas Tech game on Saturday afternoon on ABC posted a solid 7.2 rating.
Mustard wins!
I bring this information to you only because there were actually people who e-mailed me and wanted to know about the great condiment race at Kauffman Stadium this year.
Anyway, for the season, mustard came out the winner with 28 victories. Relish was second with 27, and ketchup had 26.
@ Go to
KansasCity.com to read more from Jeffrey Flanagan in his blog “Over the Top.”
To reach Jeffrey Flanagan all 816-234-4492 and leave a message or send e-mail to jflangan@kcstar.com
