Chiefs Injures Suddenly Multiplying

“Yeah, it was physical,” Andy Reid said afterward. “The guys, I appreciate. They battled. It wasn't much for a lack of effort or battling. It was just that we had some mistakes that cost us.”

Offense

The injury woes started on the opening series (for the second straight game ), when Jaylon Moore went down with a knee injury on the Chiefs’ second snap. That forced Chu Godrick, making his NFL debut, into the game at right tackle.

Moore returned but aggravated the injury late in the second quarter and Godrick played the final 31 minutes. Mahomes finished the game with non-drafted rookie Esa Pole at left tackle, in his first NFL start, and Godrick, an International Player Pathway product who never played football before coming to the U.S. from Nigeria.

The Chiefs’ wide receivers weren’t immune. With Hollywood Brown inactive (personal), when Xavier Worthy left to be evaluated for a concussion early in the second quarter, the Chiefs were down two of their top three WRs. While Worthy returned later in the quarter, both Rashee Rice and Tyquan Thornton were injured in the second half.

Chargers safety Tony Jefferson delivered hits that injured both Rice and Thornton. Rice left in the third quarter, a third-down incompletion, before returning on the next drive.

Thornton went into concussion protocol on a helmet-to-helmet hit that disqualified Jefferson.

“The league, they took care of it,” Reid said of Jefferson’s hit on Thornton. “So, it was what happened. It's one of those kind of hits. There were a couple of those. They got him on that one.”

Defense

On the team’s initial defensive series, Kansas City lost the quarterback of its defense, Nick Bolton, who left after a hard hit. Jack Cochrane finished the drive as the team’s “green dot” signal-caller.

Bolton returned on the next series but was injured again early in the third quarter. Refusing to quit, the veteran linebacker returned and finished the game.

Unbelievably, on that Chargers drive out of the halftime locker-room, the Chiefs lost defensive players on four successive plays. Non-drafted rookie Kevin Knowles, pressed into duty with Trent McDuffie inactive (knee), started that succession, followed by Bolton’s injury.

On the next play, Justin Herbert’s 27-yard strike to Oronde Gadsden, Chris Jones went to the blue medical tent with a hamstring injury. Finally, on first-and-goal from the Chiefs’ 4-yard line, cornerback Jaylen Watson left with an injury.

Like Bolton, Jones and Watson returned to action.

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