PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens might have some pre-game beef with the Jacksonville Jaguars after making a comment about their defense.

Prior to the team’s Week 8 matchup, Pickens was asked about the Jaguars secondary. He responded that they had somewhat of a “hope defense.”

“I think their D-Line they depend on their D-Line a lot,” Pickens said. “With their team having a lot of first-round picks on that D-Line, that’s what they depend on a lot. They kinda hope, hope that the guys hold up long enough, it’s kinda a hope defense.”

The Jaguars seemingly heard the comments and had some reactions ahead of the game.

“It was an interesting choice of words,” safety Andre Cisco said.

Even head coach Doug Pederson believes the remarks were a bit tough and subtly made the notion that maybe Mike Tomlin should coach his players not to say those things to the media.

“I’ve seen it, but I haven’t heard it from the team,” Pederson said. “I don’t know, I’m sure they’ve seen it. You still got to go play, bottom line. You got to go play. I try to coach our guys and I know Coach Tomlin [Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin] does the same thing. You got to coach your guys not to put information like that out there and just keep things to yourself. At the end of the day, you still got to go play and make plays and execute. That’s what it comes down to.”