Bills have issues with Jonathan Jones hit that knocked Josh Allen out of game
ORCHARD PARK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 29: Duron Harmon #21 and Jonathan Jones #31 of the New England Patriots tackle Josh Allen #17 of the Buffalo Bills during the fourth quarter at New Era Field on September 29, 2019. (Bryan M. Bennett/Getty Images)
By Ty Anderson, 985TheSportsHub.com
To the shock of no one in Orchard Park, the Bills were none too pleased with the Jonathan Jones hit that knocked quarterback Josh Allen out of Sunday’s loss to the Patriots and into the league’s concussion protocol.
“There’s no room in football for that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said following the defeat, good for Buffalo’s first loss of the 2019 season. “It’s a shame to see a player like Josh — or any player — go down from a hit like that.”
McDermott also said that he asked for an explanation as to why Jones was not thrown out of the game for the hit, but said that that was something he would “leave for the league to look into.”
But others in the Buffalo room were quick to point out what they believed to be a double standard.
“If one us did that to [Tom Brady], we wouldn’t have been in the game anymore,” Micah Hyde said.
What @Micah_Hyde said. ✊#NEvsBUF | #GoBills pic.twitter.com/PJpy6IDlLj
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) September 29, 2019
“There’s no way. There’s no way we would’ve continued to play in that game,” Hyde continued. “There’s no way.
“Obviously, that’s our quarterback. We ride or die with him. 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. So, that’s when the confirmation review that it was head-to-head, because I didn’t get a good look at it. But, like I said, if that was their quarterback, there’s no way that you could continue playing.”
“If that type of hit happens on 12, you probably get thrown out of the game,” Bills safety Jordan Poyer echoed.
But the NFL’s senior vice president of officiating, Al Riveron, didn’t agree with their beef when speaking via pool report.
“We didn’t feel that the contact rose to the level of an ejection,” Riveron said. “The player actually turns. Obviously there is helmet contact, but we have standards for election and this did not rise to that standard.”
The Bills and Patriots will not meet again until Week 16 in Foxborough.
