Chicago Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson apologized Sunday night after he was seen taunting the Washington crowd seconds before he and his teammates gave up a Hail Mary touchdown with time expired to lose to the Commanders 18-15.
Video posted on social media showed Stevenson pointing toward the stands and raising his arms in the air with his back to the line of scrimmage when the ball was snapped. He was late to get to the play, then tipped the ball up, only for Washington wideout Noah Brown to catch it in the end zone.
“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.”
The Bears, who were coming off their bye, had their winning streak ended at three.
“It comes down to that last play, and we’ve practiced that play a hundred times since we’ve been here,” Bears coach Matt Eberflus said. “I’ll have to look at what the execution was on 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’ve got a tip guy that goes behind the pile. I’ve got to look at it and detail it out and make sure we’re better next time.”
The Bears had just gone ahead with 25 seconds left on Roschon Johnson’s 1-yard touchdown run.
There were plenty of problems for the Bears before the Hail Mary, including rookie quarterback Caleb Williams fumbling an exchange with offensive lineman Doug Kramer Jr. earlier in the fourth quarter. Williams also at one point took a sack to knock Chicago out of field goal range. He went 10-of-24 passing for the fewest completions of his career to date.
“I’ve got to be better,” Williams said. “I’ve got to get the ball out of my hands. I’ve got to throw it out of bounds in that situation. The toughest part about the job is you want to go out and make plays and do special things, but you also have to understand that’s the play.”
