FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- One of the key plays in the New England Patriots' 35-14 victory over the Tennessee Titans in Saturday night's AFC divisional-round playoff game was Titans safety Brynden Trawick's neutral-zone infraction penalty in the second quarter on a Patriots punt.

But there was some confusion as to why the penalty was called on Trawick after it had originally been called a false start on punt-protection-team guard Geneo Grissom.

Referee Ron Torbert explained how the officiating crew came to that conclusion in a pool report after the game.

Said Torbert, “The line judge saw a defensive lineman jump into the neutral zone, did not see the guard across from him move. The umpire saw the guard move and threw his flag for a false start, which is what we initially announced. When we got together and discussed it and pieced together that the defensive lineman across from the guard jumped in the neutral zone and caused the false start, that's when we changed the ruling from a false start to a neutral-zone infraction.”

Meanwhile, on his day-after-game conference call, Patriots coach Bill Belichick was asked if he was surprised at the way the penalty was called.

“No, I wasn’t,” Belichick answered. “Because I thought Trawick entered the neutral zone and Geneo reacted to him. We practice that play every week. If it’s that kind of a situation -- fourth-and-less-than-5 -- and a player enters the neutral zone, we want to react to it so it’s a penalty and not allow him to get back and reset.

“I thought it was a heads-up play by Geneo to react to that. That’s what he is supposed to do. That’s what he did. I thought we did the right thing. He definitely entered the neutral zone. I mean, at least the way I saw it. Assuming that we agree on that -- that he did that -- then the player on the offensive side of the ball, if he reacts to that, the penalty is on the defense.”

Former NFL vice president of officiating Mike Pereira shared his thoughts on the call on Twitter.

The false start at 6:25 if the second was not well handled but the flag did not come 12 seconds after the movement. The mistake was that the umpire called it from deep in the backfield and the announcement was made before checking with the line of scrimmage officials (more).

— Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) January 14, 2018

Nothing was called on the center. It was the left guard. The line of scrimmage officials overruled the umpire because they felt the defender moved into the neutral zone before the LG moved. It is very close. I would rather of seen it be a false start because it was that close.

— Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) January 14, 2018