Bear Digest

If Bears Punish Tyrique Stevenson Then Why Not Shane Waldron?

Analysis: Tyrique Stevenson's gaffe on the Hail Mary pass looks bad but is it really the kind of thing that should cause a benching when the team is short of players in the secondary?

Gene Chamberlain

Tyrique Stevenson celebrates after a fumble recovery against Detroit last season.
Tyrique Stevenson celebrates after a fumble recovery against Detroit last season. / Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images
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Much is being made about a possible punishment or suspension of some sort for Bear cornerback Tyrique Stevenson after his gaffe on Washington's Hail Mary pass.

There has been no comment by coach Matt Eberflus or the Bears on this situation because things are kept "in-house" but the Tribune's Dan Wiederer made the comment via Twitter that it seems to be leaning the way of someone else starting in his place this week. Wiederer did not report this is definitely happening, only that it seemed headed this way. But countless social media claim jumpers immediately touted it as fact Stevenson was already benched.

He might, but it sure seems a difficult time for the Bears to ponder benching anyone.

They aren't certain yet they'll have cornerback Kyler Gordon back. Hamstrings are tricky even though he was able to practice on Friday. He could just as quickly leave the game on Sunday with the injury. And safety Jaquan Brisker is out again with a concussion.

They played Washington without 40% of their regular secondary and held Jayden Daniels to four field goals until a fluke pass and bad play, with Stevenson flying in to tip the ball to a player he was supposed to be covering. Stevenson might have been in position had he not been jawing with fans with his back turned when the play started.

Other Tyrique Stevenson Mistakes

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

An unnecessary roughness penalty earlier in the game for a punk move and also getting beat on a 61-yard deep ball to Terry McLaurin were not exactly shining moments for Stevenson, either.

Stevenson's season started in spectacular fashion, after a strange situation. He didn't start the opener even though he is the starter. Hmmm.

In-house.

Matt Eberflus wouldn't comment on why this happened. But Stevenson played and made the game-winning pick-6 of Will Levis in the comeback win over Tennessee.

Since then it's been a season of inconsistency, at least according to the analytic sect.

Pro Football Focus currently has Stevenson graded 98th out of 110 cornerbacks and 99th in pass coverage, although Stathead and Pro Football Reference give Stevenson a repectable 94.3 passer rating against when he is targeted. He is also only allowing 56.8% 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 this is undisputed.

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

Potential replacement Terell Smith has always been looked upon with favor by Eberflus but hasn't been tested to the extent Stevenson has. He has been in for only 389 defensive play in his career to Stevenson's 1,193, and this year for only 12 plays because he had an injury at the same time Gordon, Brisker and Stevenson were out injured.

Penalize Him for What?

There are numerous stupid plays made in the NFL and gaffes made each week. If you're going to start benching players for one play in a game, then good luck trying to find someone who plays flawless ball. Even a few bad plays don't seem like benching material.

The Bears would be crippling themselves voluntarily by benching him, and for what purpose?

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

Penalizing him even more isn't teaching him anything, and really, what good is just keeping him on the sideline for a play or two and then putting him on the field? That's a token punishment, anyway. If you believe he should be punished, then it should be actual punishment, better yet a cash fine. Money talks.

They better be careful about that punishment either way.

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If Eberflus benches Stevenson and then they lose to the Cardinals because their subs are not up to stopping Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison Jr., then it's not Stevenson's fault they lost. They could try and twist it that way and say if Stevenson hadn't deserved the penalty, then he'd have been playing and they wouldn't have lost. But it would really be Eberflus' fault for punishing a player who already is feeling bad about the entire situation and then leaving his team exposed to a good passer with poor coverage.

So in that case, they would have suffered one defeat because of one bad play last week by a player and then another defeat because of their coach's knee-jerk reaction.

The Bears kept using Velus Jones Jr. He muffed punts, ran around in circles, fell to the ground and dropped passes, he made stupid penalties in front of the ref when covering on punt team and finally they had to get rid of him after he muffed a kickoff in the opener. And Stevenson should get benched for one bad game?

Look at Shane Waldron Too

It's already tough enough to win games in the NFL without purposely 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—albeit the game-ender—then why not suspend offensive coordinator Shane Waldron for one of the worst play calls 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 call in Bears history, or at least since the last bad call he made or one Luke Getsy made last season. It ranks probably just ahead of Waldron's option toss call 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 on fourth-and-1.

Handing the ball to a center who never carried the ball before in the NFL, with an entire playbook to choose from and two good backs available, definitely constitutes a more egregious error than what Stevenson did.

But you can't suspend the offensive coordinator, especially when you're going right along with everything he does and backing him 100% the way like Eberflus has.

For that matter, Eberflus' inability to use a timeout and to protect the sidelines before the Hail Mary constituted two really dumb mistakes and he hasn't been suspended.

Or at least it appears that way. They keep a lot of things in-house at Halas Hall so we don't really know.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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.