LANDOVER, Md. (670 The Score) — As pandemonium ensued inside Northwest Stadium and Commanders head coach Dan Quinn rushed onto the field to celebrate with his players, several Bears players had just leapt to the air suddenly sat on the turf in disbelief.
A game with countless swings had just come down to the last play Sunday. Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels bought himself time against a three-man rush and delivered a deep Hail Mary pass to the goal line, one that was tipped from a crowd of Commanders and Bears and into the hands of Washington receiver Noah Brown for a 52-yard touchdown.
The Hail Mary was full of grief for the visiting Bears, who fell 18-15 and dropped to 4-3 on the season.
“We had them,” said Bears cornerback Josh Blackwell, who was one of seven defenders back in coverage on the final play. “We had the win. Unfortunately, that last ball was caught.”
From the first practices of OTAs and minicamp to the final days of each season, Bears head coach Matt Eberflus has his defense rehearse Hail Mary scenarios. The fatal breakdown for them Sunday was the lack of a “back-tip” presence, as Eberflus explained, which left Brown all alone.
It appeared that may have been Bears second-year cornerback Tyrique Stevenson's responsibility, but in a bizarre scene, he was turned around facing the crowd as Daniels took the snap. Stevenson ran to the scrum as the football descended and got his hand on the ball, but no one was near Brown to prevent him from catching the deflection.
Stevenson left the locker room without speaking to reporters about the game, saying he would address questions Monday. He quickly became the subject of great scrutiny as a video spread online of him facing the Commanders crowd at the snap of the ball.
“That’s a hard way to lose,” Eberflus said.
In his third season leading the Bears, Eberflus has been tasked with guiding his team to progress as the organization carries hope of reaching the playoffs. But once again, his in-game decisions have been called into question after a gut-wrenching loss, with a notable focus on the closing sequence.
The Commanders were backed up to their own 24-yard line with 19 seconds remaining after the Bears had scored the go-ahead touchdown. Daniels threw an incompletion on first down, then hit tight end Zach Ertz on second down for an 11-yard completion to the Washington 35-yard line.
With six seconds remaining and the Commanders still 65 yards from the end zone, Eberflus dropped his coverage back deep to the other side of the field – with many defenders aligned at the Bears’ 30-yard line. That left some 25 yards of green grass for the Commanders to operate in.
CBS color analyst Tony Romo quickly recognized what play the Commanders would run and pointed it out, with Daniels hitting an out route to receiver Terry McLaurin along the Bears sidelines. The play gained 13 yards in just four seconds, leaving 52 yards and two seconds for one final play.
Eberflus was comfortable conceding those 13 yards to the Commanders, even though it set Daniels up with a more feasible throw to the end zone.
"It doesn't really matter,” Eberflus said. “It's always really going to come down to that last play."
But it did matter. The Commanders had a slightly more favorable opportunity for Daniels to deliver a remarkable dagger to the Bears.
Until then, it seemed the Bears would leave the Beltway with an ugly win under their belts. Quarterback Caleb Williams and the offense had a poor performance, amassing just 307 yards, and Chicago was shut out until running back D’Andre Swift broke free for a 56-yard touchdown run along the sideline late in the third quarter.
Running back Roschon Johnson's one-yard touchdown plunge then gave the Bears their first lead of the game with 25 seconds remaining. His score also represented an appropriate correction by offensive coordinator Shane Waldron after an ill-fated decision earlier in the fourth quarter.
Trailing 12-7 with 6:21 remaining, the Bears faced a third-and-goal from the Commanders' 1-yard line. Lining up in an I-formation, they elected to hand off to offensive lineman Doug Kramer, who was serving as the fullback on the play. Williams didn't cleanly deliver the the handoff to Kramer, and the football was fumbled away to the Commanders.
Eberflus stood by Waldron and the decision for a run with Kramer.
“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."
Eberflus is 14-27 in three seasons in Chicago. By this point in his tenure, he’s no stranger to agonizing losses and questioning of his coaching decisions. But there's a new dynamic now.
The Bears are a team with hopes of a breakthrough after two arduous rebuilding seasons. Bears general manager Ryan Poles retained Eberflus for a third season because he believed that he would deliver growth.
Losses like the one the Bears suffered Sunday jeopardize the prospects of improvement. It very well could be a game the Bears lament at the end of the season as they look to the standings.
“It stings now, but in here, we have to be process-driven still,” Bears tight end Cole Kmet said. “If you want to get the consistent results you want, you got to maintain the process of how you go about it."
When the Bears review the film back at Halas Hall on Monday, they'll be reminded that this was a game they didn’t deserve to win. The Commanders outplayed them for most of the 60 minutes played.
In returning home to Washington, Williams was 10-of-24 for just 131 yards. The Bears' defense was gashed for 481 total yards and didn't record a takeaway for the first time all season. For the seventh straight contest, Chicago surrendered the game's first score, meaning it again had to play from behind.
The Bears had failures in all phases, even before Daniels dropped back with two seconds remaining. Then the decisive, stunning final play occurred. There was no defending the result, and it may haunt Chicago well beyond Sunday.
There was no grace for the Bears.
Chris Emma covers the Bears, Chicago’s sports scene and more for 670TheScore.com. Follow him on Twitter @CEmma670.