River Falls, Wis. ? For a Kansas City defense that didn’t score a single point off of turnovers in 2006, ringing up a touchdown and a safety in its first exhibition game of 2007 was a welcome – if rare – occurrence.

“Yeah, we’ve started out 2007 pretty well,” defensive end Jared Allen said with a laugh. “But you don’t focus on that kind of thing. You focus on getting turnovers and running to the ball, and as a result that stuff happens. You can’t live and die with scoring on defense, because it doesn’t happen that often.”

The Chiefs were tied for 10th in turnover margin, at plus 4, in 2006. Coach Herm Edwards, who wants to see that ranking go up, has stressed throughout this training camp the importance of the defense getting its hands on the ball.

“We’ve got to come out and be a defense that takes the ball away,” safety Bernard Pollard said. “That’s a stingy defense.”

The Chiefs were plenty stingy against Cleveland on Saturday. They scored a safety by forcing a fumble that the Browns recovered in their own end zone, and later added a touchdown on a 56-yard fumble return by backup cornerback Benny Sapp.

“We’ve got to start somewhere,” Sapp said after the game. “We needed a score on defense. Getting turnovers and getting points on defense has been something the coaches have talked about all camp.”

Pollard agreed, adding that Kansas City’s defense needs to get more physical in 2007.

“We’ve got to bring the red hats back,” he said.