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One of the big stories from the past week came from Lions receiver Golden Tate, who said opposing defenses in every game have said that they knew at times what Detroit was doing on offense.

Tate later tried to say he wasn’t criticizing offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi, and Rodney Harrison of NBCSN’s Pro Football Talk criticized Tate for raising such concerns publicly.

Lombardi, in his weekly press conference, had an interesting explanation for the situation.

“Everyone’s signals sometimes get stolen,” Lombardi said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “So I’m sure it’s happened, yeah.”

But defenses can know what offenses are doing without stealing signals — especially when there are no signals because the quarterbacks now get the calls directly into their ears. The concern is that the Lions have too many tendencies and tells, making it easier for defenses that have spent the time studying game film to know what’s coming based on formation, down, and distance.

While what happens after the snaps is more important than what happens before it, defenders who know what’s coming after the snap are in much better situation to stop it.