LANDOVER, Md. (670 The Score) — Before the final two seconds ticked off the clock and Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels unleashed his Hail Mary heave, the Bears didn’t deserve to win Sunday. But that didn't make the final play any easier to accept.
The Bears lost in the most heartbreaking fashion, falling 18-15 to the Commanders at Northwest Stadium on a 52-yard touchdown pass from Daniels to receiver Noah Brown as time expired. Chicago’s coverage had a catastrophic breakdown on a play that it had rehearsed plenty in practice.
Here are the observations from the Bears' gut-wrenching loss.
Eberflus deserves blame
After addressing his players in the locker room postgame, Bears head coach Matt Eberflus stepped to the podium and shared his perspective of the Hail Mary touchdown.
"We’ve practiced that play 100 times since we’ve been here," Eberflus said. "I’ll have to look at what the execution was of that. But we have a body on a body, boxing guys out like basketball at the very end. We have one guy at the rim that knocks the ball down, we got a back-tip guy that goes behind the pile. That’s a hard way to lose.”
Appropriately, the Bears often work on their Hail Mary defense on the last play of many practices, though it’s typically run at half-speed in order to avoid injuries.
As for the Hail Mary debacle Sunday, the blame should start with Eberflus.
The Bears lined up with a four-man front of defensive tackle Gervon Dexter, defensive end Jacob Martin, defensive end DeMarcus Walker and linebacker T.J. Edwards, but Edwards ended up serving as a spy on Daniels. That was a perplexing assignment given that Edwards was never truly involved in the play and the fact the Commanders were 52 yards from the end zone, meaning a Daniels run wasn't a threat.
Eberflus preferred to prioritize the coverage rather than the pass rush. A week earlier, Lions coach Dan Campbell had utilized a different approach to a much better result in clinching a win against the Vikings.
The Lions had a three-man defensive line and two linebackers who presented as spies. They then came with a blitz and sacked Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold to end the game before he could unleash a Hail Mary attempt.
The Lions’ defense had six men back to defend four receivers as Campbell and his staff preferred to be the aggressors on the play with five players rushing.
Eberflus' call was designed for seven players to be lined up back in coverage, though that part didn't even play out smoothly. In a bizarre loss of focus, Bears second-year cornerback Tyrique Stevenson was facing the crowd with his back turned to Daniels when the Commanders snapped the ball. Stevenson was seemingly disinterested in the play before sprinting over to the scrum just in time to tip the football back to Brown for the clean touchdown catch.
After the game, Eberflus pointed out that the “back-tip” defender isn’t a designated player – rather, it’s whichever player is best-positioned to get to that spot. In this case, nobody was standing behind the scrum. Given that Stevenson was approaching the scrum from the side and from far away, he could’ve recognized his place to defend the deflection with the back-tip responsibility.
Essentially, the Bears turned a four-man pass rush into a three-man rush and then had only six defenders in the coverage mix for most of the play.
Perhaps Eberflus’ more glaring miscue came on the penultimate play of the game. With six seconds left and the Commanders at their own 35-yard line, the Bears dropped most of their coverage back to their own 30-yard line. They conceded nearly 35 yards of green grass to Daniels and the Washington offense, and Daniels found receiver Terry McLaurin for an easy 13-yard gain on an out route with two seconds still on the clock.
Eberflus was concerned with preventing a massive breakdown on that play and was focusing on the upcoming Hail Mary throw.
"It doesn't really matter,” Eberflus said of that play. “It's always really going to come down to that last play."
The problem was it did really matter. The free 13 yards put the Commanders into more favorable Hail Mary range, as Daniels' heave made it to just short of the goal line before it was tipped into the end zone. If the Bears had defended better on the prior play by positioning a second level of defenders to take away the out route on the sideline, Daniels' heave probably wouldn't have reached the end zone from 65 yards away.
The Bears dropped to 4-3 with the loss. There's still so much football to be played, but the challenge grows from here. Chicago will close its season by playing six of its final eight games against tough NFC North foes.
If the Bears fall short of the playoffs, this loss will loom large as a reason why. And Eberflus may be the one to pay the price when tough decisions are made.
Tough lessons for Tyrique
Stevenson's glaring miscue on the final play came after he was briefly benched earlier in the game after allowing a 61-yard reception to McLaurin, though it wasn't clear what the Bears’ reasoning was for that decision. The team didn't announce an injury for him.
And late in the third quarter, Stevenson was penalized for a personal foul after swiping Commanders guard Sam Cosmi across the facemask. Had Stevenson closed his fist for a clear punch, he would’ve been ejected from the game. The NFL could still issue a fine.
After all that, there was Stevenson as Daniels took the final snap of the game, raising his arms toward the crowd. A handful of Bears fans in the first rows of the end zone were pointing back toward Stevenson, telling him the play was underway.
Yes, fans had better situational awareness than Stevenson in this case.
The 24-year-old Stevenson is a talented cornerback who has five interceptions in 22 career NFL games, including four as a rookie in 2023. A second-round pick in 2023, Stevenson seemed to have solidified his place as a key player in the Bears’ defense.
But for as many plays as Stevenson has made, he has had too many lapses in judgement. It’s why Eberflus hasn’t been shy about putting reserve cornerback Terell Smith in for Stevenson. That’s a challenge to Stevenson to clean up his game.
Stevenson is a humble youngster who has earned the admiration of Eberflus and general manager Ryan Poles by showcasing his spirit.
In evaluating Stevenson as a draft prospect in early 2023, Poles wondered why he had transferred from Georgia to Miami. Stevenson's answer stuck with Poles.
“The one thing I look for is just ownership of maybe some situations early on,” Poles said. “Maybe it’s a guy that was a five-star, four-star or any star that came in with a sense of entitlement in that the job should just be handed to him. And maybe they didn’t handle a certain situation the way that they should’ve and they’ve grown from it, but they own it, and they say, ‘You know what, I messed up there, and that’s on me.’ And then apply that to going to a different school and getting to know his teammates, meshing with that culture, learning from his past and then improving and playing at a high level. I love that.”
Stevenson now faces a defining test for his future with the Bears. He'll be challenged by his teammates, coaches and perhaps Poles regarding his glaring lapse of judgement with the game on the line.
How the Bears handle the situation will be interesting. The Bears could move him out of a starting role and to the bench when they visit the Arizona Cardinals next Sunday. A more severe act of discipline would be to make him a healthy scratch from the game day roster for a week.
Mini-fridge breakdown
The Bears had practiced their dive play for offensive lineman-turned-fullback Doug Kramer many times before, and quarterback Caleb Williams was “100% comfortable” running the play in a key situation Sunday.
But why in that spot? Why with 6:21 remaining and the Bears trailing 12-7 while facing a third-and-goal from the Commanders' 1-yard line? Why?
The play call that was so egregious and so indefensible that nobody seemed to believe it. That’s a trick to pull out when you’re up several scores late against the Jaguars in London, where Kramer instead served as a blocker on running back D’Andre Swift's one-yard touchdown run two weeks prior.
Asked if he considered vetoing the call from offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, Eberflus attempted to defend the decision.
“It’s a play we’ve worked,” Eberflus said. “We’ve worked that play since (Kramer) has been in there. We’ve worked it, worked the mechanics of it, the handoff to him. We just got to do it better.
“It's a one-yard play. We felt that a big guy like that taking a dive could do that."
The fumble was charged to Williams, who seemed to use the handoff mechanics he'd need for a running back, as he carried his steps through the delivery toward Kramer. In doing so, Williams didn’t allow himself the opportunity for a clean exchange.
If the Bears had run the play for running back Roschon Johnson – who scored the go-ahead touchdown from one yard out later in the fourth quarter – the original error would’ve never occurred.
Once again, Eberflus and the Bears’ coaching staff was largely to blame.
Extra points
-- The Bears’ offensive line was decimated Sunday. Left guard Teven Jenkins suffered a gruesome knee injury that could require a lengthy absence. Reserve guard Bill Murray suffered a pectoral injury and was immediately ruled out. Left tackle Braxton Jones (knee) also left the game. And the unit has already struggled enough as it is.
-- How about something positive from the Bears’ offensive line? Rookie tackle Kiran Amegadjie led the way downfield for Swift on his 56-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, sealing it with an excellent block.
-- You can excuse Williams for sliding short of the first-down marker on a third-and-2 play in the first half. That’s a situation that looks simple on television with a marker indicating the first-down line, but it's more difficult to pull off live. Williams was in the middle of the field and dancing through defenders. Admittedly, he wished he would've pushed through a defender to the marker, but quarterbacks are also taught to slide to avoid contact.
-- The Bears’ failed fourth-and-1 pass to receiver DJ Moore appeared to be a run-pass option play, with Williams having the decision to either hand off to Johnson or throw. He saw Commanders cornerback Benjamin St-Juste sagging off the line of scrimmage, but it was a trick. St-Juste sprinted in just as the ball was snapped and tackled Moore shy of the sticks.
-- Bears reserve defensive end Daniel Hardy has now committed four costly penalties on special teams, including an unnecessary roughness penalty Sunday.
-- A notable healthy scratch from the Bears’ game day roster was running back Khalil Herbert, who could be a candidate to be traded prior to the deadline on Nov. 5.
-- Credit to the fans in Washington, who created quite the atmosphere on Sunday. They stood for most of the game. It's is a fan base desperate for sustained success, which may be coming thanks to Daniels.
-- That was as stunning of a loss as the Bears have ever had.
Chris Emma covers the Bears, Chicago’s sports scene and more for 670TheScore.com. Follow him on Twitter @CEmma670.