AP

Officials saved Titans coach Mike Vrabel from serious second-guessing when they blew dead what would have been a Buccaneers’ go-ahead touchdown late in Sunday’s game.

Referee Adrian Hill said in a pool report officials ruled Brett Kern down by contact on a run by the Titans’ holder on a fake field goal attempt.

“Certainly after the whistle, we definitely saw a ball come out afterwards, but the ruling on the field was that the runner was down by contact before the ball came out, and that’s why the whistle blew,” Hill told pool reporter Jenna Laine of ESPN. “So the whistle was blown because the ruling was ‘runner down by contact.’”

Replay showed officials got it wrong, and the Bucs understandably are steamed.

“The inadvertent whistle was a huge, huge play,” Bucs coach Bruce Arians said, via Greg Auman of TheAthletic.com. “You pick up a fumble and run it for a touchdown to win the game, [it’s] not good.”

The Titans inexplicably tried a fake field goal with 3:45 remaining and leading by four at the Tampa Bay 28. Kern was lit up by Devin White on a run on fourth-and-two. Kern lost the ball before he was down, and Andrew Adams picked it up and was racing the other way.

But officials whistled the play dead, and the Bucs got the ball at the spot on downs.

Instead of a go-ahead touchdown with less than four minutes left, the Bucs began the drive at its own 28. The drive — and essentially the game — ended at the Tennessee 32 when Peyton Barber was stopped for a 1-yard loss on fourth down.

“I thought in the NFL nowadays they just let the play go through and go back and review it,” White said. “I played all the way until the touchdown because I knew the ball came out.”

The Bucs also had four turnovers that led to 14 Titans’ points in the 27-23 loss, but they might have overcome it if not for the erroneous whistle.