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Courtney Cronin, ESPN Staff Writer
Chicago Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson apologized to teammates Monday morning for his role in giving up a Hail Mary touchdown that resulted in the Washington Commanders‘ 18-15 victory Sunday.
Stevenson jawed back and forth with fans as the final play began from the Commanders’ 48-yard line. The cornerback had his back turned to the play for over four seconds as he yelled at fans in the stands before sprinting toward where both Bears and Commanders players were gathered in the front of the end zone.
Bears coach Matt Eberflus confirmed that Stevenson was supposed to box out Commanders wide receiver Noah Brown, who was left unguarded behind seven players. Safety Kevin Byard III was then supposed to knock the ball down.
Instead, the cornerback tipped the pass at the front of the scrum that fell into Brown’s hands to decide the game.
“Honestly, I don’t I feel like I should probably share what intimate side of me that I shared with the guys because I know I let them down and those guys hold me to a higher standard such as everybody in this building,” Stevenson said. “But the brief message is I apologize to the boys for letting them down. I let the moment get too big and it’s something that can never happen again and won’t ever happen again.”
CBS’ broadcast did not show the angle of Stevenson interacting with fans — who he said he was “cheering with,” not taunting — before being late to the play. Videos taken by fans and posted on social media showing how the events late in the fourth quarter unfolded drew intense criticism aimed at the cornerback, who tweeted an apology shortly after the game.
“Can’t worry about it honestly,” Stevenson said. “My focus is on this building and how the people in this building feel. I understand there’s anger. I understand somebody’s ticked. I understand the things that go on outside of the building that could possibly affect how somebody feels and all that. But to be honest I’m going to worry about the opinion of the building and if these guys got my back and that’s how I’m moving forward.”
Stevenson also drew a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct earlier in the fourth quarter for jawing with Commanders players.
“I would say the only regret I have from yesterday is just letting this team down from working hard and coming back and putting ourselves in the W column,” Stevenson said. “You know, just for me to be out of place and you know do something that’s out of character for me and cost us the loss.”
Eberflus said that Stevenson addressing the team showed “responsibility and accountability” but declined to say whether the cornerback would face any additional consequences decided by the team.
“We’ll look at that,” Eberflus said. “Those things are always going to be internal as we work with our players as we go forward. It’s really about development and making everybody better. We’ll get to that answer as we go through the week.”
Tight end Cole Kmet, who is one of eight Bears captains, said players appreciated Stevenson choosing to get up in front of the team on his own accord and noted the lessons the cornerback could take from how the play unfolded.
“That’s the unfortunate [part] and I would also say beauty of this game is that you disrespect it in a certain way, and it will come to haunt you in some form or fashion,” Kmet said. “So, I think it’s a learning experience for everybody. We all play with a lot of passion. Tyrique plays with a lot of passion, and we all love him for that. But there’s definitely a respect level of the game and knowing that you’ve got to finish it out until those double zeros hit the clock.”
While the way Chicago defended Washington’s Hail Mary ultimately decided the game, the play before put Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels — who was dealing with an injury to his ribs — in position to complete the pass that traveled 52.9 air yards.
Immediately after the game, Eberflus said that the play where Daniels connected with Terry McLaurin for a 13-yard reception on a quick out route “really doesn’t matter.”
“You’re defending a touchdown there, and them throwing a ball for 13 yards or 10 yards, whatever it is really doesn’t matter,” Eberflus said Sunday night. “It’s always going to come down to that last play, and it came down to a two-second play to the last play and we’ve got to execute on that one.”
The Bears coach doubled down on his decision Monday.
“In that particular situation, you always know that they’re gonna do — with six seconds to go at the 35, they’re gonna either go for the end zone there or just try to get more yards and do that,” Eberflus said. “So, if you want to play sideline defense, what they’re gonna do is convert to the Hail Mary there and just run everybody off the sideline. Then you’ve gotta pick them up from the sideline and do the same job that you’re gonna do in the Hail Mary. To me, we wanted to bring them up so we wouldn’t give them something that was too far down the field, which it was to the 48, and then we set up for the Hail Mary at the end.”
Not everyone felt the same about how Chicago defended the penultimate play of the game. Byard, an 11-year veteran, said he had a conversation with Eberflus about the team’s strategy.
“He has his feelings about it,” Byard said. “I think it’s a lot of different ways you can defend those plays. Me personally, I think that in that scenario possibly could’ve had the corners pressed up there because they just ran two out cuts, and the play was called just to get a couple more yards to throw it down the field. If you had the guys pressed up, maybe they convert to verticals and they actually run the Hail Mary [then], but even if they do that, our corners run with those guys — I’m not saying he doesn’t have the arm strength — but you think about the ball maybe landing 10 yards shorter and it may be a little different. I’m not saying that — we don’t know, it’s always looking back at it, woulda coulda shoulda. But at the end of the day, things happened the way it happened. Could we have sent pressure? Maybe. But he made the call and that’s what it was.”