SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Two days after getting into a heated postgame exchange with Jacksonville Jaguars coach Liam Coen, San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh reiterated that his comments last week about “legal signal stealing” were meant as a compliment but acknowledged he could have chosen his words better.

“It is all good,” Saleh said Tuesday. “Whatever happened on Sunday doesn’t change how I feel. In my heart, I genuinely was trying to give a compliment, and I own the fact that I probably used the wrong choice of words, but however you want to word it. I mean, they’re really, really good at putting their players in position to be successful. As coaches, we’re always chasing leverage. They’re trying to have winning leverage. We’re trying to take leverage away and everyone in the league is trying to find every avenue they can.

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

Saleh went on to compliment the job Coen is doing as coach of the 3-1 Jaguars, who handed the 49ers their first loss of the season Sunday.

“I think Liam’s doing a hell of a job,” Saleh said. “I really do. You can tell that that team’s really taking on his personality and I hope they came out of the game healthy, and I wish him the best of luck 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.”

After Jacksonville’s 26-21 win Sunday at Levi’s Stadium, television cameras caught Saleh and Coen yelling at each other and having to be separated, presumably from Saleh’s comments the previous week about how good the Jaguars were at legally stealing signals from opponents.

Saleh and Coen, the top two candidates for the Jaguars’ head coaching job in the offseason, did not initially greet each other at midfield after the game. On Tuesday, Saleh said he was seeking out Coen on the field to explain himself and compliment him for how he has the Jaguars playing when the argument escalated.

“The intent was to say exactly what I just said that I think he’s doing a really nice job, which I do,” Saleh said. “That football team is playing and taking on his personality. They’re playing violently on the offensive line and their running backs are running really hard and I think they’re doing a really, really nice job. I just wanted to let him know that I appreciate the way he’s going about his business with his football team.”

After Coen walked past Saleh without acknowledging him, he circled back toward Saleh while Jaguars center Robert Hainsey restrained him. Saleh responded and exchanged words with Jacksonville offensive tackle Walker Little as a Niners staff member held him back.

In a video captured by Action Sports Jax, Coen was heard shouting, “Keep my name out of your mouth. Keep my name out of your f—ing mouth,” to which Saleh replied, in part, “I will f— your world up.”

After the game, Coen twice declined to elaborate on the exchange, saying only that it was “not a big deal” and that they’d “keep that between us.”

Per custom, Saleh was not available postgame but spoke about it Tuesday as the Niners prepare for Thursday night’s game against the Los Angeles Rams.

Saleh said Tuesday he and Coen have not reached out to each other since Sunday and said again he wished he had chosen words other than “signal stealing” to make his point about the job Coen, Rams coach Sean McVay and others do in poring over game tape to find advantages for their teams without breaking the rules.

“Obviously, I did a poor job with the words,” Saleh said. “I mean, 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 legally. I was just struggling for the words, but for Sean, same thing. These guys are the best in the world and that’s why they’re there.”

Niners coach Kyle Shanahan, who attempted to douse any potential tension Friday by pointing out that Saleh was trying to pay Coen a compliment and saying he shouldn’t have used the word “stealing,” said Tuesday he mostly thinks Sunday’s kerfuffle was much ado about nothing.

Asked Tuesday which NFL coaches could take Saleh in a fight, Shanahan laughed and said “Just me” before agreeing he would take the Detroit Lions’ Dan Campbell “over a lot of people.”

“Saleh’s too nice usually but seemed like someone struck a chord the other day,” Shanahan said. “I don’t think there’s any fights going on. It was kind of comical now to look back at it.”