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

There has been no comment from coach Matt Eberflus or the Bears on this situation because things are being kept “in-house,” but Dan Wiederer of the Tribune made the comment via Twitter that it appears to be leaning in favor of someone else starting in his place this time. week. Wiederer did not report that this was happening with certainty, only that it appeared to be heading in that direction. But countless social media users immediately presented it as fact that Stevenson was already on the bench.

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

They are not yet sure if they will get cornerback Kyler Gordon back. The hamstrings are delicate even though he was able to train on Friday. He could just as quickly leave the game on Sunday due to his 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 limited Jayden Daniels to four field goals until a chance pass and bad play, with Stevenson coming in to pass the ball to a player he was supposed to cover . Stevenson might have been in position if he hadn’t chewed out his fans with their backs turned when the game started.

Other Tyrique Stevenson Mistakes

This play isn’t the only mistake Stevenson made in the game. Some might say he probably doesn’t deserve to start, period, and not just because of this one play.

An unnecessary roughness penalty earlier in the game for a punk move and also a loss on a 61-yard deep ball to Terry McLaurin weren’t shining moments for Stevenson either.

Stevenson’s season got off to a spectacular start, after a strange situation. He did not start the opening match even though he started. Hmmm.

Internally.

Matt Eberflus would not explain 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 period of inconsistency, at least according to the analytic sect.

Pro Football Focus currently ranks Stevenson 98th out of 110 cornerbacks and 99th in pass coverage, although Stathead and Pro Football Reference give Stevenson a respectable 94.3 passer rating when targeted. He also only allows 56.8 percent completions when targeted, according to Stathead, which makes you wonder what exactly PFF is looking at. He leads the Bears in pass breakups with six and that is undisputed.

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

Potential replacement Terell Smith was always viewed favorably by Eberflus, but was not tested as much as Stevenson. He has only appeared in 389 defensive plays in his career compared to Stevenson’s 1,193, and this year in just 12 games because he was injured at the same time Gordon, Brisker and Stevenson were injured.

Penalize him for what?

There are many stupid plays and blunders made in the NFL every week. If you’re thinking of starting to bench players for a play in a match, then good luck trying to find someone who plays impeccable ball. Even a few bad plays don’t seem like bench material.

The Bears would intentionally cripple themselves by benching him, and for what purpose?

Stevenson is not a little kid who needs to learn from his mistakes. Stevenson obviously feels bad for costing his teammates a loss.

Penalizing him even more doesn’t teach him anything, and really, what’s the point of keeping him on the sideline for a play or two and then putting him on the field? It’s a symbolic punishment, anyway. If you think he should be punished, then it should be a real punishment, better yet a cash fine. Money talks.

Either way, they’d better be careful of this punishment.

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If Eberflus benches Stevenson and they lose to the Cardinals because their backups aren’t able 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 penalty, then he would have played and they wouldn’t have lost. But it would really be Eberflus’ fault if he punished a player who already feels bad about the whole situation and then exposed his team to a good passer with poor coverage.

In this case, they would have suffered a loss because of a bad play last week by one player, and then another loss because of their coach’s knee-jerk reaction.

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

Also watch Shane Waldron

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

If you’re considering suspending or benching Stevenson for one play, even if it’s late in the game, then why not suspend offensive coordinator Shane Waldron for one of the worst play calls of all time? time.

That Doug Kramer run to the 1-yard line, with the Bears trailing 12-7 in the fourth quarter, might have been the worst play call in Bears history, or at least since the last bad call he made made or the one Luke Getsy did last. season. It probably ranks just ahead of Waldron’s throw option on fourth-and-goal from the half-yard line against the Colts, perhaps just ahead of Getsy using Cole Kmet on a quarterback hit against Green Bay on fourth-and-one .

Handing the ball to a center who has never carried the ball before in the NFL, with a full playbook to choose from and two good backs available, is certainly a more egregious mistake than what Stevenson did.

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

Besides, Eberflus’ inability to use a timeout and protect the bench before the Hail Mary were two truly stupid mistakes and he was not suspended.

Or at least that seems to be the case. They keep a lot of things in-house at Halas Hall, so we don’t really know.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

Twitter: BearsOnSI