Patriots' Hunter Henry: 'My Hand Was Under the Ball' on Overturned TD Catch

New England Patriots tight end Hunter Henry disputed the notion the football touched the ground during the process of trying to complete a touchdown reception during the third quarter of Thursday night's 33-26 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

The play was called a touchdown before getting overturned following a replay review.

"I believe I caught it," Henry told reporters. "He said it hit the ground. But I believe my hand was under the ball. The hand was under the ball, with hitting the ground, that's what kind of caused it to jump up. They made the call. Just got to live with it."

ESPN's Mike Reiss provided an explanation from Walt Anderson, the NFL's vice president of officiating, about why the call on the field was reversed:

A touchdown would have given the Pats a 30-23 lead midway through the third quarter. Instead, they settled for a Nick Folk field goal that ended up being their last points of the game.

Minnesota outscored New England 10-0 in the fourth quarter, highlighted by an Adam Thielen touchdown catch with just under 10 minutes left, to improve to 9-2.

The Patriots fell to 6-5 with the loss, which dropped them to last place in the competitive AFC East.

Pats head coach Bill Belichick redirected a question about the controversial call to the officiating crew:

Although the rule about going to the ground requires maintaining control throughout the process of the reception, it's hard to say definitively that Henry's fingertips weren't under the ball for the duration of the play.

Overturning a call via replay requires indisputable evidence, which seemingly wasn't available on the play in question unless the replay booth had a different angle available.

That said, the Patriots' last four offensive possessions resulted in two punts, a turnover on downs and the end of the fourth quarter as time ran out following a Jakobi Meyers catch near midfield, so the team didn't capitalize on its chances after the disputed review.

"We have to move on from that [overturned] play and play the rest of the game. There was plenty of time left," quarterback Mac Jones said. "There were other times we could have punched it in and that wouldn't have been an issue. One call can't determine the outcome. We have to be able to do better, so it's not even close."

New England is back in action next Thursday when it welcomes the Buffalo Bills (8-3) to Gillette Stadium for a key divisional clash.