KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two more bite the dust.
The Giants cannot keep their wide receivers healthy and on the field. They lose some, get a few reinforcements and then others go down and out.
Sterling Shepard was forced out of Monday night’s 20-17 loss to the Chiefs in the second quarter with a quad injury, continuing what has been a frustrating season for the longest-tenured Giants player.
Early in the fourth quarter, rookie Kadarius Toney went into the locker room with a thumb injury. He was able to return.
“Got stepped on,’’ Toney said.
Toney was coming back after missing last week’s win over the Panthers with an ankle injury and said “felt pretty good, getting back.’’
Earlier in the game, Dante Pettis, getting snaps on offense with all the injuries, hurt his shoulder while muffing a punt and was ruled out.
Shepard went down after Daniel Jones threw a pass in his direction and cornerback L’Jarius Sneed was called for pass interference. Shepard stayed down and writhed in pain. He tried to shake off the discomfort on the sideline but was finished for the night with four receptions for 25 yards.
“Tough to see a guy go down,’’ Jones said. “I know how hard he worked to get back.’’
Shepard missed two games earlier this season with a strained hamstring, returned for one game and then re-injured the hamstring and did not play last week. He did not make it through two quarters in his return.
Coach Joe Judge said he was having issues with his headsets, forcing him to burn two timeouts in the first half on offense.
“We were having headset issues, it’s happened in every game we’ve had so far,’’ Judge said. “We deal with the league and they keep giving us different software updates. … Whoever is in charge of it, they better fix it fast, that’s it.’’
When this was becoming a bigger issue during the postgame press conference than he wanted, Judge added “Again, look, I don’t want to make this about stupid headsets. That wasn’t the factor in the game. We got to do other things on our own for us to be successful.’’
Toney was called over by none other than Hall of Fame receiver Randy Moss for a quick pregame meet-and-greet. … The Giants put WR John Ross back on kickoff return, something he never did with the Bengals. There is a need for a return man with C.J. Board on injured reserve. Darnay Holmes got the kickoff to start the second half.
The Giants activated rookie CB Aaron Robinson off the physically unable to perform list, paving the way for the third-round pick to make his NFL debut. Robinson had been sidelined all summer with a core muscle injury and missed all of training camp. He saw action right away as a slot corner.
Also added to the roster for this game: LB Bernardrick McKinney and LB Trent Harris were activated off the practice squad and DB Steven Parker was signed off the practice squad. LB Carter Coughlin, who has had a rough second season, was put on injured reserve.
Chiefs CB DeAndre Baker, a Giants first-round draft pick in 2019, was inactive. Baker started one game and played extensively on defense in Weeks 3 and 4 but was mostly on the bench recently for the Chiefs.