(Audacy) The Bears will eventually move past cornerback Tyrique Stevenson’s late-game gaffe Sunday, but not before it's properly addressed.
Stevenson created a lasting image moments before the Bears’ final-play meltdown in a heartbreaking 18-15 loss to the Commanders. On the game-ending Hail Mary, Stevenson had his back to the play just before the ball was snapped as he appeared preoccupied with taunting fans instead of focusing on the final play of the game.
When the ball was eventually snapped, Stevenson still had his back to the play. At one point, fans near field level could be spotted pointing and yelling to Stevenson that the play was live.
Stevenson recovered to get back in the the play as the heave descended into a scrum of players, but he ultimately ended up being the player to tip the Hail Mary pass from Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels into the hands of receiver Noah Brown, who was standing alone in the end zone behind the mass of bodies.
It was a brutal look for Stevenson.
“I didn’t see it happening during the play,” Bears receiver and captain DJ Moore said Monday in his weekly appearance on the Mully & Haugh Show. “I’ve seen it just how everybody else has seen it (on social media).
“The captains were talking about how we need to really address that. I saw that he put something out that he was sorry, but we’ve still got to address it as a leadership group in front of the team.”
The reaction to the mistake and suggested discipline has been mixed – with takes ranging from stapling Stevenson to the bench to an internal fine to just a stern talking to.
Whatever route the team goes, Moore made clear it will be addressed.
“I don’t know (what the punishment will be), that’s not up for us to do,” Moore said. “But we can address it as captains, and upstairs will have to do what they’re going to do.
“It’s a lesson learned, for sure. He won’t do that again. But if you bench him it’s just like, that one play – it’s a big play – but that one play doesn’t define him as a player.”