The Jacksonville Jaguars surely came out of the San Francisco 49ers game feeling great about themselves. After all, they prevailed, dominating all three phases of the game and winning 26-21 after defensive coordinator Robert Saleh accused them of legally stealing signals. Rightly, head coach Liam Coen confronted Saleh in the aftermath.
Looking back, though, it was baffling that Saleh brought the issue up to begin with, since picking up tendencies is advanced scouting that could turn out to be an advantage on game day. One NFL analyst doesn't know what led the 49ers coach to make the baffling remarks but has a theory about it.
Robert Saleh may be not be thrilled the Jaguars shunned him
Pete Prisco of CBS Sports shared his thoughts on the Robert Saleh debacle and pointed out he was a frontrunner for the Jags' head coaching job before Liam Coen ultimately got the nod.
"It was strange when he brought it up this week. Because, look, Liam Cohen's been a head coach for three games. He's never put against them. He has no idea if they can steal signals or not. He has an idea that maybe people he worked with in the past did. It. Basically, [he] called out Sean McVay, he called out Kevin O'Connell."
Prisco continued, "He called anybody, and anybody in that coaching tree, other than his own guy, Kyle Shanahan, who was once in that tree, by the way, so I didn't understand the method to the madness. I understand why Liam Cohen is angry about it, but here's something to keep an eye on. That job came down to two people, basically, at the end, it was Liam Coen and Robert Saleh, and they decided to go with Liam Coen."
"So I don't know if there's bad blood there from Robert Saleh, and he decided to let it out this week, but if you're Liam Coen, I'd be angry about that too. You're lumping me into something that I'm not even involved in. And so he had a right to be angry. He probably shouldn't have handled it that way. But if I'm the Jaguars, I'm looking at that. I'm okay. My coach is getting a little fired up. His name was brought up, like, yeah."
As Prisco noted, Saleh was a runner-up for the Jacksonville coaching job. He might not have liked the fact that he was shunned in favor of Coen, which is why he felt like taking shots at him and his staff.
Liam Coen and the Jaguars showed they were better than Robert Saleh
Ultimately, the Jags showed up ready to play and were the better team. Along the way, they proved Robert Saleh wrong, and the issue might not be revisited anytime soon when you take into account that Jacksonville and the 49ers face off against each other every four years.
Regardless of the reason why Robert Saleh chose to run his mouth, the Jaguars should now be focused on extending their winning streak to three when they face the Kansas City Chiefs on primetime TV.