Tom E. Curran, Ted Johnson and Michael Holley offer instant reaction and analysis following the New England Patriots’ 15-10 loss to the Miami Dolphins. With the loss, New England drops to 1-4 on the season.
With just over a minute left in Sunday's game against the Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots rookie wide receiver Ja'Lynn Polk appeared to put his team on top with a phenomenal toe-tapping grab in the back of the end zone.
The excitement at Gillette Stadium was short-lived. Polk's go-ahead touchdown grab was overturned despite him appearing to get both feet in bounds. Upon further review, however, his heel clearly came down out of bounds. By rule, that's an incompletion.
"If any part of the foot hits out of bounds during the normal continuous motion of taking a step (heel-toe or toe-heel), then the foot is out of bounds," the NFL rulebook states. "A player is inbounds if he drags his foot, or if there is a delay between the heel-toe or toe-heel touching the ground."
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The overturned call was a crushing blow as the Patriots went on to lose their fourth consecutive game, 15-10. Polk addressed the controversial call after the defeat.
"Yeah, I mean, it's clear to see I got two feet in," Polk said. "But we ain't in that situation if I'm doing my job throughout the whole game, making the key blocks for our guys around the field and just paying attention to details."
Polk shrugged off the officials' reasoning for the overturned TD being that his heel landed out of bounds.
"As a receiver, you know, catch the ball and get your feet in. I feel like that's what I did," he said. "I don't know, I can't speak for them."
Does Ja'Lynn Polk think he got both feet in on the overturned TD? pic.twitter.com/fHtxWt3xlH
— Patriots Coverage on NBCS Boston (@NBCSPatriots) October 6, 2024
The Patriots offense again struggled to push the ball downfield, totaling 299 yards with only 160 through the air. They were also penalized 12 times, just four short of their total from the first four games of the campaign.
Polk (one catch for 13 yards on six targets) had a mix of drops and penalties, but he was far from the only Patriot with costly miscues in Sunday's game. Nonetheless, he was accountable for his errors.
"I put it on myself," the second-round pick said. "I gotta know my job and what to do whenever we get out there to execute plays. If that's lining up right, just the small little details of just knowing what you're doing, knowing the situation to make everybody on the same page. ...
"I gotta play better, I gotta do better, I gotta practice harder," he added. "I gotta find ways, whatever I can do in order to help the team get better and myself as well."
The Patriots will need Polk and their offense to bounce back next Sunday against the 4-1 Houston Texans. Kickoff for that tough matchup is set for 1 p.m. ET at Gillette Stadium.
