Snap counts: Chiefs getting healthier heading into Mexico City game

Two Chiefs starters who played exactly zero snaps against the Arizona Cardinals, wide receiver Sammy Watkins and inside linebacker Anthony Hitchens, were among the most newsworthy topics during coach Andy Reid’s Monday news conference.

Reid said Hitchens, who was active and in uniform for Sunday’s game, and Watkins, who was not active and who’d been walking with a slight limp, could both be available against the Rams.

“Sammy and Hitch will both have a pretty good chance of being ready to go,” Reid said of next Monday night’s game against the Los Angeles Rams in Mexico City.

Hitchens, who played through bruised ribs last week in Cleveland, remained in uniform on the sideline throughout Sunday’s game and was often within a few feet of defensive coordinator Bob Sutton.

“It was just for an emergency situation,” Reid said of Hitchens being active. “He’s got sore ribs. If we didn’t have to play him, we weren’t going to do that. It was that simple.”

Watkins injured his foot at the end of the game in Cleveland. He was evaluated on the sideline by the training staff. He did play again late in the fourth quarter of that game, but he did not practice on Wednesday or Thursday and had limited participation in Friday’s workout.

Healthy Houston: Justin Houston returned to the starting lineup after having missed the previous four games against the Patriots, Bengals, Broncos and Browns because of a hamstring injury. He’d practiced on a limited basis the previous week leading into the Browns game, but he remained inactive for that game.

Houston stayed on the field for 67 percent of the defensive plays (49 snaps), more than any linebacker aside from Dee Ford.

“We had a game plan, and they made sure I rotated,” Houston said. “They didn’t want to put too much on me. The coaches did a great job with that, making sure I didn’t do too much today.”

He made one tackle, delivered one hit on the quarterback and made a pivotal fourth-quarter interception on an attempted screen pass by Cardinals rookie quarterback Josh Rosen. The Cardinals, who’d completed a 23-yard pass one play prior, had the ball trailing by just six points at the time of Houston’s interception.

Almost there: Right tackle Mitchell Schwartz finished Sunday’s game having played all 59 offensive snaps. He entered the weekend needing to play 66 snaps to reach 7,000 for his career. He’s started every game and played every snap of his career since being drafted 37th overall by the Browns in 2012.

He’ll go into Monday night’s game having played 6,993 consecutive snaps and needs just seven to reach the career milestone of 7,000. This season, Schwartz and left tackle Eric Fisher have been the only two linemen to play every offensive snap.

Back in the swing: Safety Daniel Sorensen did not start, but he played 32 snaps in his first game of the season. Sorensen, who entered training camp as a projected starter at safety, spent the first nine weeks of the season on injured reserve prior to being added to the 53-man roster last week.

Sorensen made five tackles and played linebacker in passing downs. He regularly lined up alongside rookie Dorian O’Daniel (43 snaps). Sorensen slid into the spot Jordan Lucas had played in recent weeks. With the return of Sorensen and Eric Murray and Ron Parker seemingly entrenched for the time being — both played more than 70 snaps on Sunday — at the safety spots, Lucas played exclusively on special teams.

Filling in: Wide receiver Demarcus Robinson played 43 offensive snaps with Watkins not active. That marked the most offensive snaps for Robinson since he played 45 against the Denver Broncos in Week 4 when Watkins went down because of a hamstring injury. Robinson hasn’t played more than 20 offensive snaps in any other game this season.

Robinson got targeted four times and caught three passes for 30 yards Sunday against the Cardinals. In Denver, he pulled in two catches for 31 yards on three targets. He’s now the team’s seventh-leading receiver with 10 catches for 81 yards this season. Running back Spencer Ware has 14 catches for 165 yards.

Lynn Worthy

Lynn Worthy covers the Kansas City Chiefs and NFL for The Star.

This story was originally published November 12, 2018 at 2:59 PM.