The Bears DB That Tipped The Ball Up On Washington’s Hail Mary Was Taunting Fans Mid-Play

The Chicago Bears looked like they were about to improve to 5-2 on the season after Caleb Williams led the offense to a go-ahead touchdown (and two-point conversion) that put them up 15-12 on the Commanders with less than 30 seconds to go in the game. Washington only had one timeout and hadn’t scored a touchdown all game, as a banged up Jayden Daniels couldn’t lead the Commanders into the end zone through the first 59 minutes of action.

After moving the ball up to their 48 with two seconds to play, all Washington could do was heave one to the end zone and hope for a miracle. They got that after the Bears botched their Hail Mary coverage and left Noah Brown completely alone in the end zone, with all of their defensive backs running to the ball as it fell from the sky at around the 3. Among those was Tyrique Stevenson, who was the player who ended up tipping the ball up and backwards (which is the opposite of what you want to do on a Hail Mary as a defender), and it appeared he was supposed to be the one that had eyes on Brown.

The problem there was, Stevenson was a bit more focused on jawing with the Commanders crowd, taunting fans in the corner of the end zone after the ball had already been snapped, before sprinting over and deflecting the ball up, leaving Brown wide open to catch the deflection.

The Bears defense played unbelievable well all game, but unfortunately a lapse in the last two seconds erased all of that work in the first 59 minutes. I have to imagine the film room tomorrow won’t be a fun place for Stevenson, who learned a painful lesson about staying focused on the task at hand, even when the other team needs a miracle.