Bear Digest

Even Wile E. Coyote Couldn't Have Found a Way to Do What Bears Did

Analysis: The Bears found ways to do things wrong Sunday that even the famed cartoon roadrunner hunter and super genius couldn't accomplish.

Gene Chamberlain

The celebrating begins for Austin Ekeler and the Commanders while the Bears can only be disgusted after their 18-15 loss.
The celebrating begins for Austin Ekeler and the Commanders while the Bears can only be disgusted after their 18-15 loss. / Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
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The Bears don't seem to do well with special situations.

Give them a first-and-10, a second-and-5 near midfield, anything like that and they're golden.

Put the ball at the goal line and any sort of sad comedy can occur. They can toss it sideways or backwards and end up with a 12-yard loss on fourth-and-goal from the 1, like at Indianapolis. Sunday they borrowed a page from the Mike Ditka era with a William Perry type of run by center Doug Kramer and it blew up in their faces.

It was like giving Wile E. Coyote a case of dynamite without the blaster. Somehow, you knew that was still all going up in an explosion and it did. The ball went from the arms of one former Illini player into the arms of another former Illini player as Kramer fumbled it to Johnny Newton. Imagine that.

In fact, Wile E. could never even have imagined something so ridiculous as the play Shane Waldron ordered up at that crucial point in the game.

Other teams execute the tush push when they need a yard. The Bears simply kick themselves in the tush.

But Sunday, their usually dependable defense showed it can also take a special situation, with the game on the line and only a prayer of a chance for the offense and can squander one of the most gritty comebacks since, well, at least their season opener.

So how was it that Elijah Hicks, Josh Blackwell, Jaylon Jones and Kevin Byard all converged on the ball on a Hail Mary pass at the 3-yard line, Jaylon Johnson and Tremaine Edmunds could take Terry McLaurin out near the 10, and Tyrique Stevenson could be doing, well, whatever was he doing?

He was taunting the fans when the play started and the receivers were already 25 yards downfield on their routes. It was caught on video by people at the game.

The Bears sure managed to mess this all up. No one was anywhere near Noah Brown when he caught the pass deflected out of the mosh pit in front of the goal line.

Kevin Byard was closest to him but it's not entirely clear he was supposed to be the guy covering Brown.

It's possible it should have been Edmunds. Eberflus initially said whoever was with McLaurin at about the 10 could have been the one who was supposed to take the tip guy in the end zone, but he wouldn't name who it was.

"I got to take a look at it," Eberflus told reporters.

Edmunds being a 6-foot-5 guy and with long arms makes sense to be back there but not on the 10-yard line. That's where you let a guy catch it and then tackle the receiver. Game over.

Edmunds in the pit where everyone was leaping made sense too. A guy 6-5 and with long arms has a better chance at getting it or preventing someone taller from tipping it than do 5-11 DBs like Hicks, Jones, Blackwell and Byard are. And a 6-5 guy with long arms makes more sense at the back because there's no way Brown is catching it with someone that big guarding him.

And what about the pass rush on the play? They could have taken out their bud nippers and nipped it all in the bud before this geek tragedy occurred. They had three defensive linemen trying to come after Jayden Houdini Daniels in slow motion and he escaped. Some teams blitz the passer on the last play and you can just forget getting off a Hail Mary.

TYRIQUE STEVENSON OFFERS APOLOGY FOR BEHAVIOR ON HAIL MARY PASS

"No question," Eberflus said. "I've seen people do that. You know, we have that, but you know, again, we chose to do the three-man rush again. I think he had it for over 12 seconds."

As for using a linebacker to hover around near the line with a running back?

"You know, T.J. adds in a little bit on there too (to the rush) because he's got the running back," Eberflus said.

But he wasn't rushing and Daniels wasn't going to throw it to the running back. If he did, the game would have ended at some point when he was tackled. So who cared about the running back? An extra DB back to help would have been nice.

Even the lead-up to the Hail Mary looked fouled up.

They all played off of the receivers and back deep and let Daniels complete a 13-yarder to McLaurin, and were far enough off him that he ran out of bounds after 13 yards. If they merely tackled him in bounds, there was no way for the Commanders to get off another play because there was two seconds left. They had no timeouts as they used it after the previous play on Zach Ertz' reception. They couldn't have gotten up to the line and grounded the ball before throwing it downfield. Line the DB covering him along the sidelines and prevent it. Game over.

So just putting players along the sideline to prevent them from stopping the clock was all they needed to do.

"You're defending touchdown there and them throwing a ball for 13 yards or 10 yards, whatever that is, doesn't really matter," Eberflus said.

It does matter because it put them in range to throw the Hail Mary on the next play, and it let them stop the clock to do it. If McLaurin caught it and headed upfield, when he got tackled the game was over.

If they don't get the completion, it's incomplete to McLaurin, it's a 65-yard Hail Mary. He doesn't have that kind of arm unless no one rushes and they let him throw it. No one does. They were on their own 35 for the line of scrimmage so his pass would have been about 68 yards from there with six seconds left.

Just what are the odds of winning then with the ball on the 35 and six seconds left, anyway?

All of this nonsense disguises the zero points they got for their drive to the 1-yard line earlier in the fourth quarter. That's when Wile E., er, uh, Waldron, their offensive coordinator, opted to become the super genius and give it to the center turned fullback, Kramer.

Of course he fumbled. The odds of that happening were far greater than they were for the Commanders to win with the ball at their 35 and six seconds left. In fact, they were probably close to even money.

"And I know there's going to be a lot of questions about the Doug Kramer play," Eberflus said.

Yah think?

They're playing with an offensive line so beat up in the game that they were going to put Kramer in at guard after carried to the end zone because they didn't have enough guards. Teven Jenkins got hurt, Bill Murray got hurt. Nate Davis was not in uniform.

So behind that line they give the ball to their third center, who hasn't really been a guard, and he's going to be a guard but after he's a running back now? Wait, what?

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooom!

My head just exploded.

Thanks Wile E.

Thanks a lot Bears.

Twitter: BearsOnSi

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.