San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh has played down the on-field confrontation with Jacksonville head coach Liam Coen at the end of Sunday’s road win for the Jaguars.

The incident was the culmination of an exchange of words in the build-up to the game, words that Saleh now admits were ill-judged in their selection on his side having apparently accused the Jaguars staff of ‘sign-stealing’ to gain an advantage over their opposition.

“Liam Coen and his staff, coming from Minnesota, they got — legally — a really advanced signal stealing system, where they always find a way to put themselves in an advantageous situation,” Saleh had told reporters on the Thursday before the game. “They do a great job of it. They formation you to just try to find any nugget they can. We have to be great with our signals, be great with our communication to combat some of those tells we might give on the field.”

Whatever he meant by his quote, Saleh’s words did not go down well with Coen, and the first-year head coach was intent on having a few words of his own with the veteran DC as they met in the middle of the field during the customary handshakes.

While Coen insisted that it was ‘not a big deal’ and that the pair would ‘keep that between us’ during his postgame media availability, Saleh was more willing to shed light on an incident that, in his mind, had been blown out of all proportion.

“I had a bad choice of words,” he told the Bay Area media during his regular Tuesday availability. “In my heart, genuinely, I was trying to give a compliment. I own the fact that I probably used the wrong choice of words, but however you want to word it, whatever happened on Sunday doesn’t change how I feel. They’re really, really good at putting their players in position to be successful. You know, as coaches, we’re always chasing leverage, [and] they’re trying to have winning leverage, we’re trying to take leverage away. Everyone in the league is trying to find every avenue they can.

“As a coach watching their tape, I recognise the amount of hours that must be spent to be able to build formations and to find every little indicator they can to give their players a chance to be in a successful position. That’s exhausting. Every team does it, [but] some do it better than others — and it was my way of acknowledging that these guys are really, really, really good at it.

“Like I said, Sunday doesn’t change that. I think Liam’s doing a hell of a job, I really do. You can tell that that team is really taking on his personality, and I wish him the best of luck for throughout the rest of the season. I wish I could have found a better choice of words, but my intent was always to compliment that football staff.”

Asked, cheekily, how he felt Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay was doing in the ‘sign-stealing’ department this year ahead of the teams’ impending primetime clash, Saleh was again complimentary.

“It’s the same thing,” he insisted. “Those guys, like Sean, [49ers head coach] Kyle [Shanahan], [Minnesota Vikings head coach] Kevin O’Connell, all those guys, they do such a great job through formation identification, building formations and putting their players in position to gain leverage. These guys are the best in the world at it and that’s why this tree keeps on growing and growing and growing.

“Sean’s no exception. I mean, you think it’s easy, we’ll just defend Puka [Nacua]. Well, shoot, they’re always finding ways to put Puka in different spots to create leverage. Then you’ve got to deal with Davante [Adams]. Just double both of them? Well then, shoot, they’ve got other guys, and they still manage to find ways to put those guys in winning leverage. They do it with great film study and understanding football and understanding defenses and understanding body language and just trying to find every nugget they can to help their team be in great position.

“And that’s what I was trying to articulate, but obviously I did a poor job with the word. If I said the words ‘film study’, I don’t think we’re really talking about this, but I used ‘signal stealing’ and that’s why I was so adamant about saying ‘legally’. I was just struggling for a word.”