There's a prevailing sentiment going around that the Buffalo Bills may have really put Josh Allen in harm's way this afternoon. It was already a desperate situation in Houston, as the Texans stormed out to a 20-3 lead and Allen was overcoming a very-wayward passing day (nine completions on 30 attempts) to will the Bills back.
A 59-yard field goal by Ka'imi Fairbairn as time expired gave the Texans the 23-20 win, but that's not really the main story in the aftermath. Allen got tackled to the turf when he escaped the pocket, and you don't have to be a medical expert to see that he was very clearly shaken up.
https://twitter.com/NFLonCBS/status/1843014970436407806
When Allen rolls over, does that look like somebody who's truly alert? Not to me.
Allen's daredevil playing style is what endears him to so many people. I've lost count of the times he's tried to run through somebody's face, or attempted to hurdle a defender only to get upended, and thought for sure he'd be down for the count. In other words, he's a massive human being, and it takes a hell of a wallop for him to not pop right back up on any given hit. This really did not look good.
Here's a mere taste of the reactions from around NFL X/Twitter. The consensus? Most were incensed that Allen was permitted to return to the field — and implied the medical professionals on-site gave him a bit too quick of a look-see.
https://twitter.com/EmmanuelAcho/status/1843017170303037509
https://twitter.com/JoshReynolds24/status/1843017486008250777
https://twitter.com/GMas315/status/1843016533360201824
https://twitter.com/BradyH_216/status/1843016807919333554
https://twitter.com/JayRHawker/status/1843016134293147653
https://twitter.com/MikMcDaniel/status/1843016428422873528
https://twitter.com/KevChestnut/status/1843017320622641611
Given all the concussion issues Allen's AFC East counterpart Tua Tagovailoa has endured the past few years, you'd think the Bills and/or the impartial medical evaluators would be more on the ball with this. If basically everyone is saying something is fishy here, it probably is.
The NFL has made many modifications to the rules to better protect everyone in the name of player safety. An overhauled concussion protocol is a big part of that. It just doesn't seem like the maximum amount of caution was exercised in this instance. I'm not calling the league's protocols a blanket failure. I really wonder, though, what happened here with Josh Allen and how/why he was cleared to take the field again.
I'm sure the Bills will monitor Allen's health closely in the coming days. You just don't want to put him back out there if anything's amiss. Many people speculated that Tua wasn't properly diagnosed with a concussion during the Bills-Dolphins Week 3 game in 2022. Days later on a quick turnaround to Thursday night in Cincinnati, Tua was unequivocally knocked out cold and taken to the hospital.
It would suck to see history sort of repeat itself if this lingers at all for Allen...
