The San Francisco 49ers made light work of the New York Giants in Week 3, beating the NFC East side 30-12. This scoreline led to little drama, especially in the second half, but there were some fireworks right before the half. That’s when 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams punched Giants defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson in the face. Both players got penalties and Williams, a 10-time Pro Bowler, didn’t get ejected by referee Shawn Hochuli and his crew. After the game, the NFL (kind of) explained why.

Following the big 49ers’ Week 3 win, Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA) pool reporter Matt Barrows from The Athletic got to sit down with NFL Senior Vice President of Officiating, Walt Anderson, and ask him about the incident and why Williams got to stay in the game.

“When we have a flag thrown on the field for unnecessary roughness, members of the officiating department are able to review the available video, Rule 19, to determine if there is a flagrant action that should result in disqualification,” Anderson explained. “We ended up looking at the video we had available to us, and we just didn’t see anything that rose to the level of flagrant.”

Barrows presses Anderson on how what looked like a closed fist punch to the facemask didn’t rise to the level of flagrant. Eventually, Anderson admitted that “We couldn’t confirm that 100 percent from the standpoint of was it truly a closed fist strike, we just couldn’t determine that.

From the looks of it to a non-referee, it sure looks like a closed fist punch, but to Shawn Hoculi and the NFL officials, Trent Williams didn’t punch A’Shawn Robinson directly in the face, so he got to stay in the game.