There is a lot of talk about a possible punishment or suspension of some sort for Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson after his mistake on Washington’s Hail Mary pass.

There hasn’t been any comment from coach Matt Eberflus or the Bears on this situation because things remain “internal,” but the Tribune’s Dan Wiederer made the comment via Twitter that he appears to be leaning toward someone else starting in his place. this week. Wiederer did not report that this was definitely happening, just that it seemed to be going in that direction. But countless social media outlets claim the jumpers immediately touted it as a fact that Stevenson was already on the bench.

He could do it, but it sure seems like a tough time for the Bears to consider benching someone.

They still aren’t sure if they have cornerback Kyler Gordon back. The hamstrings are complicated even though he was able to train on Friday. He could quickly leave Sunday’s game due to the injury. And safety Jaquan Brisker is out again with a concussion.

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They played Washington without 40% of their regular secondary and held Jayden Daniels to four field goals until a fluke pass and a bad play, with Stevenson flying to give the ball to a player he was supposed to be covering. Stevenson might have been in position if he hadn’t been gaping with fans on his back when the play started.

Other mistakes by Tyrique Stevenson

That play isn’t the only mistake Stevenson made in the game. Some might say he probably doesn’t deserve to start, period, and not simply because of that play.

An unnecessary roughness penalty early in the game for a punk move and also getting beat on a 61-yard deep pass to Terry McLaurin weren’t exactly shining moments for Stevenson either.

Stevenson’s season started in spectacular fashion, after a strange situation. He did not start the first game even though he is the starter. Hmm.

Internal.

Matt Eberflus declined to comment on why this happened. But Stevenson played and made Will Levis’ game-winning pick-6 in the comeback win over Tennessee.

Since then it has been a season of inconsistency, at least according to the analytical sect.

Pro Football Focus currently has Stevenson ranked 98th among 110 cornerbacks and 99th in pass coverage, although Stathead and Pro Football Reference give Stevenson a respectable 94.3 passer rating when targeted. Additionally, he’s only allowing 56.8% completion when targeted, according to Stathead, which makes one wonder what exactly PFF is looking at. He leads the Bears in pass deflections with six and this is indisputable.

Even with him missing a game against Jacksonville due to a calf injury, even the Hail Mary pass has probably been a better year for Stevenson than his rookie year. Stathead said he allowed nine touchdown passes as a rookie. He has only given up two this season on a team with the best red zone defense in the league.

Eberflus has always looked favorably on potential replacement Terell Smith, but he hasn’t been tested to the extent that Stevenson has. He has played only 389 defensive snaps in his career to Stevenson’s 1,193, and only 12 snaps this year because he was injured at the same time Gordon, Brisker and Stevenson were injured.

Penalize him for what?

There are numerous stupid plays and blunders in the NFL every week. If you’re going to start benching players for a play in a game, then good luck trying to find someone who plays flawlessly. Even a few bad plays don’t seem like benching material.

The Bears would be willingly hurting themselves by benching him, and for what purpose?

Stevenson is not a little boy who needs to learn from his mistake. Stevenson obviously feels bad about costing his teammates a loss.

Punishing him further isn’t teaching him anything, and really, what’s the point of just keeping him on the sidelines for a play or two and then putting him on the field? Anyway, it is a symbolic punishment. If you think he should be punished, then it should be a real punishment, better yet, a cash fine. Money talks.

They better be careful with that punishment either way.

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If Eberflus benches Stevenson and then they lose to the Cardinals because their backups aren’t in a position to stop Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison Jr., then it’s not Stevenson’s fault they lost. They could try to twist things that way and say that if Stevenson hadn’t deserved the punishment, then he would have been playing and they wouldn’t have lost. But it would really be Eberflus’ fault for punishing a player who is already feeling bad about the whole situation and then leaving his team exposed to a good passer in bad coverage.

So in that case, they would have suffered a loss due to a bad play by a player last week and then another loss due to their coach’s knee-jerk reaction.

The Bears continued to use Velus Jones Jr. He botched punts, ran in circles, fell to the ground and dropped passes, committed stupid penalties in front of the referee when covering the punt team, and finally had to get rid of him after he botched a snap. starter in the first game. And should Stevenson be benched for a poor game?

Check out Shane Waldron too

It’s hard enough to win games in the NFL without intentionally weakening your own pass defense, but benching Stevenson wouldn’t be the first mistake this coaching staff has made.

If you’re going to suspend or bench Stevenson for one play, even the game-ending one, then why not suspend offensive coordinator Shane Waldron for one of the worst plays of all time?

That Doug Kramer run at the 1-yard line, with the Bears trailing 12-7 in the fourth quarter, might have been the worst play in Bears history, or at least since the last bad decision he made or the last one he made. Luke Getsy. season. He’ll probably be just ahead of Waldron’s throwing option on fourth-and-goal from the half-yard line against the Colts, maybe just ahead of Getsy using Cole Kmet on a quarterback sneak against Green Bay in fourth and 1.

Handing the ball to a center who has never carried it before in the NFL, with an entire playbook to choose from and two good running backs available, definitely constitutes a more egregious mistake than the one Stevenson made.

But you can’t suspend the offensive coordinator, especially when you agree with everything he does and support him 100% like Eberflus has.

In fact, Eberflus’ inability to use a timeout and protect the sidelines before the Hail Mary constituted two really stupid mistakes and he has not been suspended.

Or at least it seems that way. They keep a lot of things internally at Halas Hall, so we don’t really know.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

Twitter: BearsOnSI