Referee Clete Blakeman has explained the reasons behind the officials' controversial decision to overrule a late penalty in last night's match between the New England Patriots and the Carolina Panthers.

The Patriots had a chance to steal a last-gasp victory when quarterback Tom Brady threw into the end zone as time expired, only to see rookie safety Robert Lester intercept the pass.

However, the away side thought that they would have another chance when a flag was thrown for pass interference by Luke Kuechly on Rob Gronkowski at the back of the end zone, only for the officials to gather and decide that, as the pass was under-thrown, the penalty did not count and the match was over.

"So it was determined at that point in time that when the primary contact occurred on the tight end that the ball, in essence, was coming in underthrown and in essence it was [immediately] at that point intercepted at the front end of the endzone," Blakeman told reporters.

"So there was a determination that, in essence, uncatchability, that the ball was intercepted at or about the same time the primary contact against the receiver occurred."

The Panthers won the contest 24-20 to make it six wins in a row.