Two days after the New York Jets claimed they knew what plays the Detroit Lions were running on offense, quarterback Matthew Stafford said he's changing up his hand signals _ a standard practice _ for this week's game against the San Francisco 49ers.
"We do every week," Stafford said in his weekly news conference Wednesday. "So, I don't know what they thought they had. Not too worried about that honestly, to tell you the truth."
Stafford threw four interceptions in Monday night's 48-17 loss to the Jets. After the game, Jets linebacker Darron Lee said defenders were "calling out (the Lions') plays as (Stafford) was getting up to the line."
"We knew his signals," said Lee, who had two interceptions. "We knew everything. That's just preparation as a defense. ... It just seemed like we were in his head as a defense."
Lions coach Matt Patricia said Tuesday that scouting reports in the NFL are so detailed that it's "pretty common" for opposing teams to know each other's plays heading into a game, and he downplayed any advantage the Jets may have had from deciphering Stafford's hand signals.
Stafford said any play-tipping that may have happened wasn't the reason he played poorly Monday.
"Listen man, you win a game you get to say whatever you want," Stafford said. "And I get that. We're constantly evolving and changing all that kind of stuff, our communication tools as an offense, as our defense is. So I don't put too much credit on that."
