The fallout continues from the Chicago Bears’ stunning 18-15 loss to the Washington Commanders on a 52-yard Hail Mary on Sunday’s final play.
Will that include any repercussions for cornerback Tyrique Stevenson, whose lapse in focus proved costly on the winning touchdown? The Tribune’s Brad Biggs tackles that question and many others in his weekly Bears mailbag.
Will the Bears consider releasing Tyrique Stevenson or at least bench him for the Arizona game after his costly mistake? — Everett S., Chicago
This question has been on the minds of others — fans, coaches and personnel officials alike — since Sunday’s last-play gaffe.
“That will leave a bruise and a hangover,” one defensive coordinator texted Sunday night. “Guys like that stay and he’ll get coaches fired.”
In asking former players who spent a long time in the NFL, they could not recall a teammate or opponent doing something so foolish on the field during a play that would equal Stevenson getting caught up in the moment and interacting with the crowd at Northwest Stadium while the final play was going on. That distraction happened before he failed his assignment: getting a body on wide receiver Noah Brown, who hauled in the ball Stevenson tipped — he should not have been a jumper — for the game-winning score.
There’s no chance the Bears would consider the extreme measure of placing Stevenson on waivers. If they did, he would be a member of the Carolina Panthers, who have the top position for waiver claims, before the week ended. If they want him out of the building — and I doubt that’s the case — they could trade him. But that’s a non-starter, in my opinion, unless something else crops up.
Like you, I wondered in my 10 thoughts column after the game if the coaching staff would consider sidelining Stevenson against the Cardinals on Sunday and replacing him with Terell Smith or Jaylon Jones, two players the team also likes. It would send a clear message that disregard for coach Matt Eberflus’ HITS principle — hustle, intensity, takeaways and situational smarts — comes with consequences and that accountability is real.
We’ll have to see how things shake out. Stevenson’s actions the rest of the week — after he stood up in a team meeting Monday morning and apologized — could factor into a decision.
Whatever the Bears decide, the overarching goal has to be to improve when they line up against the Cardinals and the week after that against the New England Patriots. However the team reacts, it needs to be a learning experience for the entire roster.
“Just move on,” said a personnel man with another team. “It was a mistake and immature. It’s the young ‘me’ generation. It is what it is. Overreacting would derail the kid’s career in Chicago.
“That’s just me. I am sure he feels awful already. Everyone in Chicago and on ESPN is killing him. He needs someone to support him and that should be his teammates. It’s not like the rest of the team played great.”
Other readers asked if the Bears could fine or suspend Stevenson. Those options are not on the table. The collective bargaining agreement precludes using such levers to discipline a player for being a knucklehead on the field.
We’ll see what role Stevenson has against the Cardinals. For what it’s worth, I think he struck the right notes Monday when he met with reporters via Zoom.
“The only regret I have is just letting this team down from working hard and coming back and putting ourselves in the ‘W’ column,” Stevenson said. “For me to be out of place and do something that’s out of character for me and cost us the loss.
“You can’t take back the game. I understand the emotions and how everything flared up, but anything a teammate could do is just point out the problem, address how they feel and, if I don’t respect that teammate, I take it a certain way. But I respect all these guys and I love all these guys. I have to take it on the chin and let them boys know that this won’t ever happen again. They ain’t got to worry about me playing out of character like that again.”
Stevenson also had an unnecessary roughness penalty, and it’s fair to say his emotions were not in check throughout the game. It’s an interesting venue because the stands are closer to the field than at almost every other NFL stadium. In baseball terms, it’s sort of like Wrigley Field or Fenway Park with very little foul territory. That’s not providing excuses for Stevenson, just adding context to how it might be easier to get distracted by the fans if you’re not dialed in as you should be.
Stevenson has told his coaches and teammates what he’s going to do. What really matters is how he conducts himself and plays moving forward. He’s a talented player and the Bears will benefit if he’s more focused on the task at hand.
Flus preaches the HITS principle but as a coach he sure seems to fail on the “be situationally smart.” During his tenure he has repeatedly made critical errors that cost games. Why no pressure on Jayden Daniels during the Hail Mary play? Why play his defensive backs 25 yards off the line of scrimmage with six seconds left, allowing an easy 13-yard completion? And why not call a timeout before the Hail Mary to get everybody on the same page? And allowing Shane Waldron to call a gadget play to Doug Kramer? Come on! — Keith L., Wichita, Kan.
A lot of Sunday’s decisions can be second-guessed, and all of them focus on a handful of high-profile mistakes near the end of the game. Here’s how I would rank them.
1. The biggest mistake and clearest “do-over” was allowing the easy pass on the penultimate play. Washington was on its 35-yard line with six seconds remaining.
“In that particular situation, you always know what they’re going to do,” Eberflus said Monday. “They’re going to either go for the end zone or just try to get more yards. If you want to play sideline defense, they’re going to convert to the Hail Mary and then just run everybody off the sideline. Then you’ve got to pick them up from the sideline and do the same job that you’re going to do in the Hail Mary.
“We wanted to just bring them up so we wouldn’t get something that’s too far down the field, which was to the 48, and then we set up for a Hail Mary at the end.”
My problem with that logic is Daniels, who was not 100%, wasn’t going to be able to throw the ball to the Bears 10-yard line on a Hail Mary from his 35. Sure, the Bears still would have had to defend the last-gasp throw properly, but it would have made a lot more sense not to give the Commanders free yardage, as the Bears did on the 13-yard completion to Terry McLaurin. Maybe rush the cornerbacks up just before the snap and give Daniels something else to consider with so little time remaining.
2 (tie). Handing off to Kramer, a reserve offensive lineman who was lined up at fullback, is a great idea with a big lead or a big deficit. In a close game, go with the guy in Roschon Johnson who has been super productive in short-yardage situations.
I can tell you that defensive lineman William “Refrigerator” Perry’s first touchdown came on a 1-yard run when the Bears were tied 7-7 with the Green Bay Packers in the second quarter on Oct. 21, 1985. The Bears went on to win 23-7, and it was a big reason Perry’s legend was born.
2 (tie). Rush five or at least four defenders on the Hail Mary. Sending only three linemen didn’t put Daniels under enough duress and allowed him to create all the time he needed to launch the pass.
3. Call a timeout before the final play. I’m not convinced this would have gotten Stevenson on the right page — he was out of sorts. But it couldn’t have hurt, that’s for sure.
It’s a shame there’s so much to second-guess at the end of a game. The Bears should have won despite playing so poorly on offense for three quarters. If they had left victorious Sunday night, imagine the focus this week on Caleb Williams and how he engineered drives late in the game with a patchwork offensive line. It would be totally different.
Even without more pass rushers or a timeout before the final play, the odds of the Commanders scoring were still incredibly low, and somehow disaster struck for the Bears.
Why don’t teams use their taller players to defend against Hail Mary passes? I know defensive backs know how to defend passes, but in these situations why not use some tall receivers (Keenan Allen, Cole Kmet, Rome Odunze) who are also experienced at tracking long passes as defenders to knock down Hail Mary attempts? — Dave K.
That’s a good question and another one Matt Eberflus was asked. The Bears had a tall player near the goal line in 6-foot-5 middle linebacker Tremaine Edmunds. It’s something teams do from time to time. Unfortunately because this play blew up on the Bears, everything is fair game.
In this scenario, I don’t think you’re pulling a starting cornerback in Tyrique Stevenson off the field to insert a taller offensive player. Stevenson blew his assignment and that’s largely why the play was successful for the Commanders. In the future, maybe we’ll see Odunze or Kmet out there in a similar situation.
With Flus doubling and tripling down on Sunday’s coaching decisions, do you think his team-facing comments are different? Sunday’s coaching decisions are offensive. — @mmesq11
That’s a really good question because I would have guessed Matt Eberflus would have given a little ground in comments to reporters, saying something to the effect that, in hindsight, he wishes he would have considered a different option. Certainly he could have said that about the decision to run the ball with Doug Kramer at the goal line, and he could have been less rigid in explaining the Hail Mary series too. He chose to stay firm and is being roundly criticized for his decisions and answers to many follow-up questions.
Earlier this season, I think offensive coordinator Shane Waldron gained credibility with players by outlining in meetings some calls he wished were different. I’m sure Eberflus has done that in the past. He certainly has had players wonder publicly about some of Sunday’s strategy, and you raise a good point because what Eberflus says to his staff and players is what matters most. Perhaps he has shared a different message with them.
If the Bears replace Matt Eberflus after the season, how much does that set back Caleb Williams’ developmental timeline? It seems like Ryan Poles took a very risky and unnecessary gamble retaining Eberflus and not replacing him with an offensive head coach. — @gp1127
A couple of folks asked something similar, and my first reaction is why would it necessarily set back Williams? If a coaching change is needed, the Bears have to make that switch because it’s the best thing for the team. There’s a sky-is-falling belief that changing coaching staffs or coordinators suddenly would stunt Williams’ growth? If he’s the kind of quarterback the Bears believe he is, it wouldn’t.
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Williams will go into Year 2 with a season of experience studying defenses, reading coverages, testing concepts, learning how to handle the rush and more. Yes, he would have to learn a new playbook if the Bears made a change. Justin Herbert had a new coaching staff with the Los Angeles Chargers in 2021, his second season. He passed for 5,014 yards and 38 touchdowns — both career highs.
I understand the discussion at the end of last season when Poles had to weigh what he wanted to do in 2024: Keep Eberflus and allow him to hire a new offensive coordinator or reboot the entire coaching staff? You could have made a compelling case at the time for him to find an offensive-minded head coach, knowing he was going to draft a quarterback. He didn’t. He retained Eberflus after a series of meetings.
If the Bears change coaching staffs after this season, I won’t be part of the crowd that believes that would negatively affect Williams’ growth.
What led to the Bears regressing so hard this week? Was Shane Waldron overthinking things, nerves from Caleb Williams or poor execution the main reason the Bears had a scoreless first half? — @quackinator100
Probably a little bit of all of the above. The Bears were on the road, where they haven’t had much success. It was a homecoming game for Williams. The offense has started slowly most games, and the execution wasn’t good enough against a better opponent than they had faced recently.
Quarterback development looks like the stock market at times. It’s going to go up. It’s going to go down. It can be a bumpy ride for rookies, and I think most people understand Williams’ development won’t be linear.
But the problems on offense in the first quarter — and, in this game, the entire first half — are a real hurdle the Bears need to clear soon. They can’t try to play catch-up every week, even when the defense is keeping the opponent out of the end zone.
Why is Matt Eberflus never held accountable for a team that takes undisciplined penalties and constantly starts slow and looks unprepared throughout his 2½ years on the job? — @nicklefrit1375
Slow starts are an ongoing issue and something the Bears have to get fixed before they start tangling with NFC North opponents. If there was a clear answer to why they’ve been so disjointed in the first quarter, well, there would be a solution by now. I know they’ve taken a close look at it and are attempting to adjust. They need to land on something that clicks soon.
As far as penalties, I’m not with you there. Have they had undisciplined penalties? Yes. Too many presnap penalties? No question. However, they’ve had only 45 penalties, tied for the eighth-fewest in the league. They were in the middle of the pack last season, so that has improved.
When can Larry Borom return? — @rlsandack
The Bears started the 21-day window last Wednesday for Borom to return to practice, and he’s eligible to return to the 53-man roster anytime in that window. Provided he’s good physically this week, my guess is he might be activated before Sunday’s game at Arizona. The team placed offensive lineman Bill Murray on injured reserve Tuesday with a pectoral muscle injury, so Borom could take Murray’s spot.
The expectation for a while has been that Ryan Bates’ window to return to practice will start this week. In a perfect world, the Bears probably would want him on the practice field for two weeks before returning him to the 53-man roster. It’s not a perfect world, though, after left tackle Braxton Jones (knee), left guard Teven Jenkins (ankle) and Murray were injured last week. It will be interesting to see what the contingency plans are in the trenches.
The Texans were a three-win team when they drafted C.J. Stroud and then became a playoff team and are 6-2. The Commanders won four games before they drafted Jayden Daniels and look like a playoff team at 6-2. The Bears could have chosen either QB but instead got Caleb Williams, who clearly looks like, with the small sample size, an excellent prospect who can definitely play. But he hasn’t transformed the team like Stroud or Daniels has. Did the Bears miss here — and by that I mean miss on a transformational QB like Stroud/Daniels seem to be — or is the offense/line/coaching/other so problematic that Stroud or Daniels would look the same as Williams? — C.S., Houghton, Mich.
That’s a fair question. I’ve said all along that Williams would be judged against Stroud, who was dynamic last season in Houston, and the Daniels comparison is right there as well. You made the point yourself that we’re talking about a very small sample size. If the Bears win the next two weeks and the offense plays well, would you feel as if Williams had started that process for a team that would then be 6-3?
Things haven’t clicked for the Bears on offense unless they’ve faced really poor competition, and there’s work to be done on the offensive line, which now is dealing with a host of injuries. It may not be the answer you’re seeking, but a true judgment of Williams and where he stands among NFL quarterbacks could take years. It’s about chasing a championship, and as well as the Commanders have played, they are a ways off from that.
Let the season breathe more and understand that in crunch time — at the end of halves and games — Williams has been pretty good. The Bears have legitimate hope at quarterback, and in the aftermath of a brutal loss, we shouldn’t lose sight of that. He put them in position to win Sunday.
Is it fair to assume that Tyrique Stevenson will be more of a target for opposing offenses going forward since he’s identified himself as an undisciplined player. I can imagine he’ll be getting a lot of trash talk over his mistake in coverage that led to the winning score. — Scott. S.
Absolutely. The pro scout preparing advance reports on opponents will go through the roster and highlight players prone to having their buttons pushed and acting out. The Bears have a list of such players on the opposing team before every game. Their opponent has a list, too, and it’s reviewed in team meetings. Stevenson will be highlighted, circled and underlined, and you should expect every opponent at various times to attempt to get under his skin and provoke him into committing a penalty.
So many missed opportunities and the Bears fought hard against a tough opponent on the road. Where does this one stack up in the unfortunately long history of Bears heartbreakers? And where in your mind does this sloppy, hard-hitting mess of a game rank in NFL history? — Marty F.
As far as NFL history, plenty of teams have had more crushing and consequential losses at the end of a game. In terms of Bears heartbreakers, I’m sure you don’t need a reminder of the 2019 wild-card playoff loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Cody Parkey’s missed 43-yard field goal.
Then there was the 2013 season finale against the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field in a winner-take-all battle for the NFC North title. The Packers sank the Bears 33-28 as Aaron Rodgers connected with Randall Cobb with 38 seconds remaining for a 48-yard touchdown on fourth-and-8 as free safety Chris Conte got caught standing flat-footed. Those losses were far more painful.
