After Washington defeated Oakland 27-10 in the third week of the NFL's 2017 season, Redskins cornerback Josh Norman and free safety D.J. Swearinger said they'd been fired up by pregame comments made by Raiders wide receivers Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree.

The normally even-keeled and laconic Cooper said he didn't know what the Washington defensive backs were talking about.

This week, Norman cleared up the discrepancy -- and put the blame on a motivational ploy by Redskins rookie defensive end Jonathan Allen. Allen and Cooper were teammates at Alabama.

Crabtree caught one pass for 7 yards and Cooper caught one pass for 6 yards against Washington. Swearinger posted a photo of Cooper on Instagram after the Sept. 24 game and said the receiver had claimed he'd have 200 receiving yards versus the Redskins.

"First and foremost, you don't come up in here and say what you're going to put up on somebody," Norman said. "Two hundred yards? (Crabtree) didn't catch two balls. He only caught one, huh? So please, whatever you do, do not run your mouth if you're a wide receiver and expect to show up on Sundays, because I'm telling you, we are here and we are waiting. Don't come out here and tell me what you're going to do. Show me. You're going to have to run through me to get that. ...

"Whatever that young cat said, Coop, go and take it back."

When asked about the defensive backs' reactions, Cooper was mystified at the time.

"I don't know where he gets that from," Cooper said. "As long as I've been here, I've never bragged or anything before or after a game. So I don't know where that comes from."

Appearing on this week's edition of the podcast "The Glass Case of Emotion" featuring NASCAR driver Ryan Blaney, Norman said it came from a Washington "D-lineman who went to Alabama."

"I really wanted to come out there and make sure they knew, like 'Please don't disrespect us before the game,'" Norman said. "... Basically, I found out that he lied to me about the whole thing. So I'm like, 'He didn't say all that?'"

Norman said Allen told him: "Nah, man. I just really wanted to win, man."

"So I felt bad I couldn't take it back," Norman said to a Raiders fan in the audience whose question sparked the cornerback's revelation. "So I'm apologizing now to you."

In the first two games of the 2017 season, Cooper had caught nine passes for 95 yards and one touchdown. Starting with the game against Washington, Cooper caught nine passes for 51 yards and no touchdowns in the next four contests.

The swoon helped depress Cooper's 2017 production to 48 receptions for 680 yards after he had caught 155 passes for 2,223 yards and went to the Pro Bowl in his first two seasons.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @AMarkG1.