The hype for the 49ers vs Jaguars game is electric. As 49ers DC Robert Saleh recently commented on Jaguars’ head coach Liam Coen, calling it “legal stealing.” Now, with fans already taking sides, Coen has revealed his thoughts. He wasn’t playing into the noise. He wants to keep the spotlight on football.

So when asked about Saleh’s comments, Coen kept the attention where he wanted it. “Yeah, I’m not going to speak on that fully right now. You know, have a huge game for us coming up this weekend,” he said. Then he doubled down on his approach. “Got a great defense that we’ve got to go and attack, and that’s where our whole mindset and mentality is right now.”

However, reporters pushed him again. “Were you surprised he went there?” they asked. Coen admitted the truth. “Yeah Again I’m just, We’re really trying to focus on a darn good defense… Offensively about us getting better.” But he wasn’t moving off his stance. He explained that the Jaguars’ focus is sharp on fixing their own execution.

Jacksonville is averaging 356.3 yards per game, eighth in the league, and putting up 23.3 points a night. Not too shabby for an offense still finding its ceiling.

So what exactly did Saleh say? “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. They do a great job of it. We have to be great with our signals. We gotta be great with our communication to combat some of those tells we might give on the field,” he said.

Motions and personnel rotations force defenses to show their hand. That opens up Coen’s playbook and lets him map coverages faster. He leaned on that when he was an OC, and he’s sticking with it now as the Jaguars’ head coach. However, Coen isn’t the only one who addressed Saleh’s comments.

Like Liam Coen, Kyle Shanahan also addressed Saleh’s comments

On Friday, Kyle Shanahan jumped in to clear the air about Robert Saleh’s choice of words. The 49ers’ 45-year-old head coach said Saleh wasn’t firing shots at Liam Coen or the Jaguars. Instead, Shanahan made it clear that Saleh’s remarks were meant to highlight something positive. He even admitted that the phrase “sign-stealing” can sound harsher than it really is, and that sometimes people hear it as a dig.

“(Saleh) was trying to give them a compliment,” said Shanahan. “I think when the words ‘sign stealing’ are used in a long compliment, that can sometimes go the wrong way.”

Shanahan explained further that there’s nothing shady going on in Jacksonville. What Saleh really meant, according to him, is that Coen and his staff have built a system that puts their offense in the right spots. In Shanahan’s eyes, that’s respect, not criticism.

Now, while the coaches are talking it out, the football doesn’t stop. The 49ers head into Sunday looking to stay perfect on the year. A win would move them to 4-0. But the Jaguars aren’t backing down either. At 2-1, Duval is pushing to jump to 3-1. And with injuries starting to clear up for San Francisco, including Brock Purdy’s expected return under center, the game just got even more interesting.

The game will take place at Levi’s Stadium. This will be just the second home game for the Faithful to pack the stands. So the question is simple: who gets the upper hand, Coen’s Jaguars or Shanahan’s 49ers?