LANDOVER, Md. — Seventeen seconds.
That’s how long it took Sunday for one of the most incredible, improbable, unfathomable Chicago Bears comebacks to turn into one of the most stunning, dispiriting and soul-shaking losses in franchise history.
Seventeen freaking seconds.
From snap to catch.
From Washington Commanders center Tyler Biadasz to quarterback Jayden Daniels to receiver Noah Brown.
Those 17 seconds were haunting the Bears as they left Northwest Stadium with Sunday’s 18-15 loss carving a hole through their stomachs.
“Heartbreaking,” Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson said.
Those 17 seconds now present Matt Eberflus’ team with an intense emotional recovery process, one that promises to test their mettle and unity in the week(s) ahead. That’s how galling Sunday’s finish was.
THE BALL IS CAUGHT
IT'S A MIRACLE– JIM NANTZ pic.twitter.com/WqFTfQdWM0
— NFL on CBS
(@NFLonCBS) October 27, 2024
“That was probably the worst loss I’ve ever experienced,” defensive end DeMarcus Walker said.
Added cornerback Josh Blackwell: “We had them. We had the win. And unfortunately, that last ball was caught.”
Somehow, in one of the wildest sequences in football this season, the 17th second after Sunday’s final snap left Brown in the end zone, alone and with the football in his hands behind a crowd of five Bears and two Commanders who had all converged in front of the goal line to create a fateful ricochet that reverberated across the NFL.
Hail Mary. Fifty-two yards. Touchdown.
Game over.
For the Commanders, now 6-2, it was a legendary entry into the storybook rookie season Daniels continues authoring. Meanwhile, it left the Bears in total disarray inside the visiting locker room, working to sort through the details of their defensive discombobulation on the last snap and the dejection the defeat had delivered.
“It’s all kind of a blur,” safety Elijah Hicks said. “Right now, you just feel really down about it.”
To be fully honest, even with the obvious difference in stakes, this had “double-doink” vibes for the Bears — from the mind-twisting manner of the final play to the full-on despondency inside the locker room.
“It’s unbelievable,” ninth-year safety Kevin Byard said. “You know what I mean? I’ve been in the league long enough. I’ve never been a part of a loss like that. But I’ve seen stuff like that. It’s just unfortunate it happened to us this time.”
To be clear, the Bears were ahead 15-12 when Washington started the final possession at its own 24-yard line with 19 seconds remaining. The Bears had taken their first lead of the day moments earlier on a 1-yard Roschon Johnson touchdown run, providing emphatic punctuation on a remarkable second-half rally.
It felt like the Bears had a potentially season-changing victory in hand. All that remained were the door-closing duties, something a feisty Bears defense seemed prepared for after holding the Commanders without a touchdown on their first 11 possessions.
But Washington snuck into range for their miracle, first with an 11-yard Daniels completion to Zach Ertz and then, following a timeout, with an uncontested 13-yard dart to Terry McLaurin, who snuck out of bounds at the Commanders 48.
Two seconds remained on the game clock.
Daniels, though, turned those two precious ticks into 17 seconds, into a shortened version of “Tom and Jerry.”
He escaped out the back of the pocket, scrambled right, scurried back to his left and shuffled forward. And then — even with a rib injury that had put his status of playing Sunday into question until about 90 minutes before kickoff — Daniels launched a moonshot west into the Maryland sky, 12 seconds after the play began.
Pause here for a moment. Rewind a few frames. Now zoom out.
Most egregious for the Bears on that final sequence? Second-year cornerback Tyrique Stevenson was way over to the side of the field before the snap, away from everyone and waving goodnight to dejected Commanders fans.
Stevenson was celebrating and taunting to such an extent that he spent the first three of those 17 seconds with his back entirely turned away from the action.
Premature. Immature. It was an unforgivable error.
Stevenson didn’t begin to participate in the play until 5 seconds had elapsed. He seemed out of place for much of the sequence and eventually wound up in the crowd of bodies where the final ricochet occurred.
“There should never be somebody wide open in the back of the end zone,” Johnson said. “We just didn’t execute that well enough. I can’t say who was supposed to back there. I don’t know. But at the end of the day, there should never be anybody wide open in the back of the end zone.”
Stevenson declined to talk to reporters in the locker room Sunday. Later in the evening, however, he posted a message on social media.
“To Chicago and teammates my apologies for lack of awareness and focus …. The game ain’t over until zeros hit the clock. Can’t take anything for granted. Notes taken, improvement will happen. #Beardown.”
To Chicago and teammates my apologies for lack of awareness and focus …. The game ain’t over until zeros hit the clock. Can’t take anything for granted. Notes taken, improvement will happen. #Beardown
— Tyrique Stevenson (@dreamchaserTy10) October 28, 2024
Three other Bears inside the scrum where Daniels’ “Hail Mary” pass first descended tried to describe what they experienced and how it all differed from what they prepared for.
“We practice boxing everybody out. Like basketball,” Blackwell said. “We’ve got a jumper in the back and then when the ball goes up, box out and the jumper bats the ball down. That’s the process. But that can be tough when you’re scrambling around for a little bit.”
Byard was the designated jumper.
“Obviously the quarterback had a long time to scramble back there,” he said. “And as you’re standing back there and everybody’s just kind of piling up, it’s hard to get an angle to try to get a running start. And by the time the ball is in the air, you’re trying to fight to get into position.
“The ball got tipped into the air. And their back guy ended up making the play.”
When the play began, the Bears deployed four defenders near the line of scrimmage. Jacob Martin and DeMarcus Walker were rushing but had their own difficulties fighting through double teams with six-man protection. Gervon Dexter Sr. was far more passive with his rush, glued to a Biadasz block for most of the play.
And linebacker T.J. Edwards? He seemed stuck in no-man’s-land, neither rushing Daniels nor covering an eligible receiver.
Whatever the case, the Bears certainly didn’t create nearly enough pressure on Daniels to shorten the time he had to work his magic. Perhaps they would have been far better off sending more heat.
“That’s an option,” Eberflus said. “No doubt. I’ve seen people do that. We have that. But again, we chose to do the three-man rush.”
Added Walker: “In that situation, you want your guys going back to the end zone. Basically playing basketball back there. And goalie.”
Still, as a result, the final play just kept going. And going. And going.
“It felt like that play went all day,” Hicks said. “I don’t know how long it was.”
Seventeen seconds.
“Seventeen seconds?” Hicks said. “That’s crazy.”
Worst of all, this was not a new situation for the Bears, something they weren’t ready for.
“We’ve practiced that play 100 times since we’ve been here,” Eberflus said.
Added Walker: “We practice it every week. And damn near every day. When the time comes, obviously we have to execute and make the play.”
Johnson described himself as “pissed off.”
“We can all go back and say there were plenty of other times today where we could have won the game,” he said. “But at the end of the day, no other play had more intensity and more on the line than that play. We have to find a way to come out on top.”
The explosion of delirium that erupted inside Northwest Stadium after Brown’s catch was massive. The Commanders were elated at their unbelievably good fortune, pocketing an unforgettable win in a big-stage game that may have huge ramifications in the NFC playoff picture two months from now. For both teams.
“I was juiced up for sure,” Daniels said. “I mean, that’s kind of a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Meanwhile, the Bears found themselves with all sorts of clean-up to do and an emotional recovery process that will be difficult to navigate.
In 17 seconds Sunday, the direction of their season took a dramatic detour.
