FOXBORO – They say football is a game of inches. On Sunday at Gillette Stadium, it came down to one foot.

The heel of Ja’Lynn Polk’s right foot, to be precise.

The Patriots’ rookie wide receiver appeared to haul in a go-ahead touchdown with 1:08 remaining against the Dolphins. Replays revealed, however, that although Polk got his left foot and the toe of his right down in bounds, his right heel landed on the back line of the end zone.

The touchdown was overturned, and Miami went on to win 15-10, dropping New England to 1-4 on the season.

It was a controversial call — but ultimately the correct one. In accordance with Rule 8, Article 3 of the NFL Rulebook, officials were right to take Polk’s pivotal score off the board.

“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 rule 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.”

Ja’Lynn Polk catches the TD for the #Patriots, but it is called an incomplete. pic.twitter.com/SfZ8NgOps4

— New England Sports Fellow (@NESportsFellow) October 6, 2024

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Had Polk tapped his toes in bounds while facing toward the sideline, his touchdown would have counted. But because his heel landed on the line while he was falling to the turf, the pass was incomplete.

“It was close,” Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo said after the game. “It was close, but it was the correct call in my opinion. … Just a tough call.”

NFL vice president of officiating George Stewart confirmed to a pool reporter that the rule was applied correctly.

“[Polk] did not have two feet in the field of play,” Stewart said. “It was a toe-heel, it wasn’t a drag. It was a toe-heel that caused this to be an incomplete pass.”

Polk, New England’s second-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, helped set up his would-be touchdown by hauling in a 13-yard completion from Jacoby Brissett earlier in the drive and then drawing a defensive holding call one play later. Rhamondre Stevenson (11-yard run), Antonio Gibson (10-yard run) and Demario Douglas (13- and 19-yard receptions) added chunk plays to bring New England into the red zone.

But after the reversal, the Patriots’ offense lost all momentum. They sandwiched two incompletions around a Hunter Henry false start — one of 12 accepted New England penalties in the game — and turned the ball over on downs.

“It’s pretty frustrating,” said Polk, who finished with one catch on six targets. “But if you think of everything together, I feel like if I would have just been more dialed in on details and just taken advantage of the little things throughout the game, I feel like we wouldn’t even be in that situation. So I’ve got to find some ways to get better, if that’s practicing harder, getting extra film in or just digging and finding ways to help this team get better.”

The Patriots got one final opportunity after forcing a Dolphins three-and-out. They drove into the red zone again, but Henry was tackled in bounds at the 11-yard line with no timeouts remaining, ending the game.