ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen was knocked out of Sunday's 16-10 loss to the New England Patriots with a head injury and did not return.
Allen remained motionless on the turf for a few moments early in the fourth quarter following a helmet-to-helmet hit from Patriots safety Jonathan Jones, who was flagged on the play but not ejected. Matt Barkley nearly led a scoring drive on his first series but threw an incompletion on fourth down from the Patriots 3-yard line.
The Bills officially placed Allen in concussion protocol after the game.
"There's no room in football for that," Bills coach Sean McDermott said after the game. "It's a shame to see a player like Josh, or any player, to go down from a hit like that."
"I asked for an explanation, I thought he should've been thrown out," McDermott said. "Other than that, I'm not going to get into it. That's for the league to get into."
NFL head of officiating Al Riveron said the league did look at the hit but "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," Riveron said.
Before the injury, Allen completed 18-of-39 passes for 153 yards and three interceptions. He also ran for a touchdown.
There was a certain amount of disbelief in the Bills locker room that Jones, whose penalty was offset by an offensive holding call, wasn't ejected.
Safety Micah Hyde, who intercepted Tom Brady in the first half, said there's "no way" any Bills player would've been allowed to continue if they'd hit Brady in a similar fashion.
"That was the first thing that came out my mouth on the sideline -- if one of us did that to (Brady), we wouldn't have been in the game anymore," Hyde said. "There's no way we would've been able to continue to play in that game, even with the holding penalty offset.
"To see that happen ... Josh didn't slide but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter if it's a running back, you can't hit head-to-head."
Buffalo has no other quarterback on its 53-man roster, but signed Davis Webb to its practice squad in Week 1.
Jones told reporters after the game the hit was not intentional and he would check up on Allen to make sure he was OK.