Chiefs Injury Report For Sunday: Lilja Is Key

Oct 28, 2012; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Chiefs center Ryan Lilja (65) on the sidelines against the Oakland Raiders in the second half at Arrowhead Stadium. Oakland won the game 26-16. Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

As we reported yesterday, Jon Asamoah, Jon Baldwin, and Jake O’Connell have all been officially ruled out for Sunday’s game. However, news got a little more grim on Friday. The Chiefs released their official injury report (listed below). All the other players on the injury report were full participants in practice, except one, Ryan Lilja. Lilja wasn’t even a limited participant, he did not practice. That meant that the Chiefs had to move Russ Hochstein (who was expected to replace Asamoah) in to center, slide RT Eric Winston over to RG, and play rookie Donald Stephenson at RT.

This is not what we want the starting offensive line to look like on Sunday, for two reasons. First, Bengals DT Geno Atkins is a load for any interior offensive line. The Chiefs do not want to face him with a struggling Jeff Allen, signed off the street Russ Hochstein, and a lifelong tackle in Eric Winston as their interior OL. Second, because of Allen’s struggles the Chiefs relied on running behind the right side of their line against the Steelers. The right side has already taken a major blow in the loss of Asamoah, having to play Winston out of position and start Stephenson would just makes things that much worse. As game time approaches keep an eye out for reports if Lilja will play or not. If he doesn’t it could be a long day for the KC offensive line.

KC Injury Report: