Kansas City Chiefs DE Frank Clark is coming off of one of the worst two-game statistical stretches of his professional career. He has recorded just two assists and one quarterback hit over the past two games. In the past seven games, Clark has only recorded a single sack.
Some would consider him to be in a slump, but Clark isn’t concerned about his own individual statistics. Right now, he’s focused on one thing.
“To me, I care more about winning,” Clark told reporters on Friday. “A player like myself, a few other players in the room, when you see success, it’s nothing new to you. I’m used to winning, I’m used to achieving all the numbers, the sacks and all that stuff. So, getting another sack, getting another 5, 10 sacks ain’t nothing new to me. I’ve been there, I’ve done that. The only thing I haven’t done is win two Super Bowls. The only thing I haven’t done is play the season and go 15-1. We want to finish as strong as we can.”
Clark wants to keep winning. He’s focused on getting to another Super Bowl and playing his part along the way. Some would argue that recording more sacks lines up with that goal, but for Clark, he’s not interested in being selfish in the pursuit of individual statistics.
“Yeah, of course, as a competitor you always want the individual things to be better,” Clark continued. “You always want to do things like that better. The only thing that I can really appreciate, just being a part of this team, is our willingness to win and our willingness to not be selfish. We’re real selfless. You don’t find a lot of guys really into the whole stat game.”
Clark’s performance has many questioning whether he’s healthy. Last year he dealt with a neck injury that seemed to hamper his play early in the year. It doesn’t seem like that is the case this season. He believes he’s playing his part and doing it to the best of his ability.
“This year, you’ve got some difficulties here and there,” Clark said. “Even last year you had some difficulties here and there because you’ve got to play within the gameplan. I’m a team player, I’m not about to go out of the gameplan to make a play. You see a lot of that stuff in football today. You’ve got guys that want to be ‘the show.’ They want that sack so bad that they’re chasing sacks. They’re doing stuff like that and they see it affect their team. That’s one thing that I pride myself on being is a team player. The team first before Frank. I’ve gotten to where I am today by being a great teammate, not being a great individual player — to keep it real.”
While Clark implied he was unwilling to freelance, he got into some extracurriculars with Tom Brady in Week 12. He had two roughing the passer penalties that helped keep a touchdown drive alive for Brady and the Bucs in the fourth quarter of the game. Clark didn’t feel the need to apologize or correct any issues with his approach. He believes that he was owed those penalties.
“I ain’t correcting nothing,” Clark said. “Those were my first two, roughing the passer penalties in my career. I owe some more, you know what I’m saying. I’m cool, we’ll be alright. I don’t owe anymore for this year, I told coach Spags that I ain’t going to do no more this year. Probably next year, but not this year.”
Clark actually did have a rough the passer penalty back in 2017 when he was still with the Seahawks, but these are the first roughing penalties that he has recorded in Kansas City. They’re uncharacteristic and fans should probably take him at his word when he says they won’t happen again this year.
The practice, goals and effort of Clark won’t be negated by any statistical performance. He’s not going to get down on himself just because he isn’t leading the NFL in sacks. Instead, he’s turning his focus on the end game, which is to keep winning all the way to Super Bowl LV.
“We’re the Kansas City Chiefs, we’re the champs and we’re winning,” Clark said. “So at the end of the day, I feel like that’s more important.”
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