The Titans blamed the officials, and the NFL agrees.

Michael Signora, the NFL's vice president of football communications, clarified in an email to The Tennessean on Monday night that an error by referee Walt Anderson’s officiating crew and the ensuing confusion ultimately wiped out what appeared to be a successful surprise onside kick by the Titans, late in the third quarter of their eventual 27-23 loss to the Rams on Sunday at Nissan Stadium.

Brynden Trawick recovered the onside kick moments after DeMarco Murray scored on a six-yard touchdown run to tie the score at 20-20 with 4:23 remaining in the third quarter, but the Rams were not in position to field the kickoff. A flag was thrown, then picked up without apparent explanation. Anderson announced that the Rams had called a timeout, then said they hadn't. Then it was ruled that the ball was never officially put in play.

The Titans were forced to re-kick and this time booted the ball deep.

“The officials inadvertently miscommunicated to the Los Angeles sideline that it was a full timeout instead of a 30-second timeout” following Murray’s touchdown, Signora wrote. “When L.A. was not ready for the kickoff due to the miscommunication, the officials decided to shut it down and allow for a re-kick.”

As for whether the officials will face repercussions, Signora wrote:

“Every play of every game is evaluated, both for calls that are made and those that are not made. This also includes an evaluation of game administration, such as this situation.”

After the game, Titans kicker Ryan Succop said that the ball had been put in play by an official, that an official had given a signal to begin play, and that the play clock was running when he kicked the ball.

“Obviously, the referee always tells me, ‘Wait till we blow the whistle,’” Succop said. “And he put the ball down, I saw him give the signal like it was a live ball, and I even looked and saw the play clock counting down. And credit our guys, they did a great job.

“We saw (the Rams) weren’t out there and thought we had an opportunity to onside kick it. And I thought our guys did a great job staying onside. We recovered the ball. And I’m not sure about the ruling. I don’t know what happened there. But it’s unfortunate. … I thought it seemed like it should have been our ball, and for whatever reason it wasn’t.”

Titans coach Mike Mularkey remained angry about how the situation played out after the game.

He declined to go into detail about why the officials told him the kick was disallowed.

“I don’t even want to try and explain what they said,” Mularkey said.

But he went on to cite several perceived missed calls in the game, including no flags being thrown for roughing when punter Brett Kern was twice knocked to the turf.

“The punt wasn’t blocked, the first one. That’s the frustrating part. So it was roughing the punter. He was actually hit both times,” Mularkey said, before criticizing NFL officiating in general this season. “It was very inconsistent, and I’ll say this, that’s been about the most consistent thing they’ve done is been inconsistent. Week-in, week-out. Not just here, but for us, for sure.”

WEEK 17: JAGUARS (10-5) AT TITANS (8-7)

When: 3:25 p.m., Sunday

TV/radio: CBS / 104.5-FM

Reach Jason Wolf at jwolf@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter at @JasonWolf and on Instagram and Snapchat at TitansBeat.