How Patriots reacted to Polk’s game-winning TD being overturned

Patriots rookie receiver Ja”lynn Polk said he did not get an explanation from officials about why his go-ahead touchdown was overturned in the closing minutes of New England’s 15-10 loss to the Dolphins on Sunday. 

Officials initially ruled Polk’s catch as a touchdown, but reversed the call after a review. NFL receivers must get both feet in-bounds to make a catch, and Polk appeared to step on the out of bounds line. According to NFL rules, a player is ruled out of bounds if any part of the foot hits out of bounds during the motion of a normal continuous step. 

Polk believes that both his feet were in, but he said there was more he could have done at earlier points in the game that would have kept the Patriots out of that situation. 

“It’s clear to see you got two feet in,” Polk said. “But we ain’t in that situation if I’m doing my job throughout the whole game.” 

Convinced that it was a touchdown, Polk went over to celebrate with fans after the play. 

“There was a lot of emotion trying to get everybody going and getting everybody hyped,” Polk said. “Those are things — big plays in a big moment — that we all look forward to making for this team in order to win games. I just feel like there was a lot of excitement and just energy built up in that play. I knew I caught it, but we’ve got to be better.”

The catch would have been Polk’s second career touchdown and first game-winner in the NFL. He finished with one catch on Sunday for 13 yards on six targets. 

“It was rough. It looked like his feet was in,” receiver Kendrick Bourne said. “I don’t know, man. It’s just rough. I felt bad for Polk because that would have been exciting for him to have a game-winner so early in his career, but everything is a learning experience. He’ll learn from it and get better.” 

DeMario Douglas offered one word when asked for his thoughts on the play. 

“Touchdown,” Douglas said.

The Patriots did not have time to overthink the call. They had three more snaps on that drive, which ended with two more incomplete passes along with a penalty, causing New England to turn the ball over on downs. 

“You’ve got to still have that next play mentality,” Douglas said. “That’s the thing. I thought we had it but we’ve got to go out there and go play.”
Coach Jerod Mayo said he thinks the referees made the right call. 

“Look, you guys can ask the referees about that,” Mayo said. “It was close. It was close. But it was the correct call in my opinion, but I’ll have to go back and watch the film. I saw the replay live. Just a tough call.”