During his limited playing time last Sunday, Bernard Pollardmade his presence felt.
Pollard was forced to leave Sunday’s eventual loss to theEagles after Courtney Upshaw’s helmet was driven into his ribs during a sack ofMichael Vick. The play was the final of three impressive plays from the Ravens’strong safety.
“I took friendly fire,” Pollard said.
Pollard suffered a rib contusion but is expecting to playthis Sunday night against the New England Patriots.
“I’m feeling good,” Pollard said. “I did everything in mypower to try to come back [in Philadelphia] but I couldn’t. I got some rest andI’m good to go.”
Before the “friendly fire,” Pollard was having a stronggame, having intercepted Vick in the end zone, ending the opening drive of thegame. To start the same drive during which he was later injured, Pollard laidhis shoulder into tight end Brent Celek, who was hit so hard that his chinstrapended up covering his eyes as he lay on the ground.
Being a spectator doesn’t interest Pollard, and he voicedhis frustration with not being able to further contribute to the team.
“Anytime you see your team out there and you’re watchingfrom the sideline, it sucks as a competitor.”
Many want to blame officiating for the Ravens’ loss butPollard attributes the falter in Philadelphia to not playing football as theRavens are expected to.
“We have to continue to play hard, fast and physical and wecan’t get away from playing Raven football,” he said. Any time we don’t playRaven football, we go out there and we lose. It kind of takes you back to somelast year on away trips, we played exactly the same.”
Last Sunday, Celek torched the Ravens for 157 yards on eightcatches – this week, the Ravens will welcome Rob Gronkowski into town. “Gronk”set the NFL record for touchdowns by a tight end with 17 in 2011.
Gronkowski’s physical style of play is something welcomed byPollard, who is one of the hardest hitting safeties in the NFL.
“You know this guy is going to fight for everything thatcomes to him, he’s going to fight for every extra yard,” said Pollard. “Youknow he’s going to do everything he can to embarrass the defense.”
Pollard does look to use his physical game play to make sureGronkowski doesn’t take advantage of the Ravens defense as Celek did last week.
“When you get physical defenses like us, we want to doeverything we can to show you it’s going to be a long, hard game,” he said.
For Pollard, his main focus has to be getting back on thefield. It’s possible the Ravens are simply being cautious with him in practicebut, despite his earlier words, he wasn’t participating during the portion ofpractice open to the media on Wednesday.


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