Bills starting quarterback Josh Allen is in the concussion protocol, head coach Sean McDermott confirmed following Buffalo's 16-10 loss to the Patriots on Sunday. Allen, who completed 13-of-28 for 153 yards and three interceptions, suffered the injury after a helmet-to-helmet hit by New England corner Jonathan Jones in the fourth quarter.
"There's no room in football for that," McDermott said of the hit in his postgame press conference. "It's a shame to see a player like Josh, or any player for that matter, go down on a hit like that."
Jones was flagged for unnecessary roughness, but the penalty was offset by an offensive holding. Jones was also not ejected from the game because of the hit.
"I asked for an explanation," he continued. "I thought he should have been thrown out. Other than that, I am not going to get into that at all. That is for the league to get into."
Following the contest, Senior VP of Officiating Al Riveron told pool reporter Vic Carucci, "Well, we looked at it and in this situation, we didn't feel that that contact rose to the level of an ejection. The player actually turns. Obviously, there is helmet contact, but we have standards for an ejection, and this did not rise to that standard; therefore, we did not eject him. There was a foul called and obviously the penalty stood, but we did not feel this contact rose to that level."
Jones did say postgame that he did not intend to injure Allen and he planned to check on him to see if he was alright.
Matt Barkley came in under duress for Allen and completed 9-of-16 for 127 yards and an interception. Buffalo travels to Nashville to take on the Titans in Week 5 and Allen's status will be worth watching throughout the week leading up to that matchup.
