Tyrique Stevenson was not a household name before Sunday. He is now but for the wrong reason.
The Bears defensive back was busy taunting Commanders fans at the snap of the final play.
He finally realized the play had started and raced over to get involved in the Hail Mary play at exactly the wrong time, tipping it to Noah Brown in the end zone. It gave the Commanders an improbable 18-15 victory over the Bears.
Stevenson has been ripped and laughed at on social media since.
On Sunday night, Stevenson apologized.
“To Chicago and teammates, my apologies for lack of awareness and focus,” Stevenson wrote on social media. “The game ain’t over until zeros hit the clock. Can’t take anything for granted. Notes taken, improvement will happen. #Beardown.”
The loss dropped the Bears to 4-3 behind the Lions, Vikings and Packers in the NFC North.
The Commanders had a prayer answered to end Sunday’s game against the Bears, with receiver Noah Brown catching a tipped pass in the end zone for a walk-off, Hail Mary touchdown.
That came after the Bears had taken a 15-12 lead with running back Roschon Johnson’s 1-yard touchdown with 25 seconds on the clock.
But Jayden Daniels made all of that moot with his 52-yard score that was tipped in a crowd and went right to Brown in the end zone.
“When you lose a game like that, that’s a tough one to swallow,” Chicago head coach Matt Eberflus said postgame, adding he was proud of the team for battling to get back in it. “It’s important to look at that, too.”
But how in the wide world of sports did the Bears fail to defend that pass?
“It comes down to that last play and 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 that’s the rim, that knocks the ball down. We have a back-tip guy that goes behind the pile.
“So, again, I’ve got to look at it and detail it out and make sure we’re better next time. But, again, that’s a hard way to lose. But, again, I was proud of the way the guys battled all the way through.”
The Bears rushed just three players on the last play, which likely didn’t help matters, as Daniels had all day to throw.
“That is an option, no doubt,” Eberflus said on potentially sending extra rushers. “I’ve seen people do that. We have that. But, we chose to do the three-man rush.
“Again, I think he had it for over 12 seconds. I’m not sure what happened back there in terms of blocking and getting after the quarterback. … But like I said, execution.”
So how do the Bears make sure this loss doesn’t linger into the future?
“I think it’s having a strong mind and a strong conviction of who you are,” Eberflus said. “This is one game, right? I know when you lose on the last play, it’s going to hurt, right? But let’s go back and look at the tape and then get better from this. That’s what we always do. That’s what we’re going to do here.”
Before the game-winning Hail Mary that propelled the Commanders over the Bears, Chicago defensive back Tyrique Stevenson was taunting Commanders fans.
And Stevenson kept doing it after the play started. To the point where he didn’t even realize the play had started.
Eventually, Stevenson got in position to make a play on the ball. And he was the one who tipped it to receiver Noah Brown, who made the most nonchalant catch of a game-winning Hail Mary in the history of Hail Marys.
The outcome has huge ramifications in the standings. It moves the Commanders to 6-2. And it drops the Bears to 4-3.
Even though Chicago still has a winning record, they’re now in last place in the NFC North.
Next week, the Bears travel to Arizona.
For three quarters, the battle between Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels and Bears quarterback Caleb Williams was a defensive struggle. But the fourth quarter was the time for the two young passers to shine.
Williams drove his team down the field on a 10-play, 62-yard drive that ended with a touchdown with 25 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to put the Bears ahead of the Commanders 15-12. And then Daniels used those final 25 seconds to set up one final Hail Mary attempt, used his legs to extend the play, and then chucked it into the end zone where Noah Brown caught a 52-yard touchdown to win the game, 18-15.
Prior to the fourth quarter, Williams was having a dismal game. He completed just four of his first 16 passes and could do nothing against the Commanders’ defense. But at the end of the third quarter Bears running back D’Andre Swift exploded for a 56-yard touchdown run, and then the fourth quarter was all Bears.
The Bears nearly threw the game away when a disastrous attempt at a tribute to Refrigerator Perry resulted in Williams and offensive lineman Doug Kramer botching a handoff and fumbling near the goal line. But the Bears’ defense made a stop, and then Williams led the Bears’ offense down the field.
And then Daniels did his thing, completing a game that saw him pass for 326 yards despite playing through a rib injury.
The win improves the Commanders to 6-2, and they look like real contenders in the NFC East. The loss drops the Bears to 4-3, and they’re struggling to keep pace in the NFC North.
Most importantly, this was a great showcase of two quarterbacks with a great future ahead of them. We’ll see them battling for NFC playoff berths plenty more in the future.
Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels is starting today against the Bears.
Daniels, who had been listed as questionable with a rib injury, was announced as the Commanders’ starter 90 minutes before kickoff.
The NFL moved the Bears-Commanders game to the 4:25 p.m. ET kickoff window to give a bigger audience to the matchup of Daniels vs. Caleb Williams, the first two picks in the 2024 NFL draft and two of the most promising young stars in the league.
The Commanders’ inactives are QB Jeff Driskel (emergency third quarterback), S Darrick Forrest, TE Colson Yankoff, LB Dominique Hampton and T Brandon Coleman.
The Bears’ inactives are DB Kyler Gordon, DB Jaquan Brisker, RB Khalil Herbert, OL Nate Davis, DL Dominique Robinson and DL Zacch Pickens.
