Ward, you’ll remember, was hit hard early on. As medical personnel escorted him off the field, he stumbled. That was enough for the team’s neurosurgeon, Dr. Joseph Maroon, to suspect a concussion and keep him from returning.

“Within four to five minutes, he was back to normal,” Maroon recalled Saturday. “And quite frankly, in the past, he would have returned. We would have sat him a quarter and subjected him to some testing, but he likely would have returned.”