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Bears make efforts to put aside Hail Mary dissent
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Bears make efforts to put aside Hail Mary dissent

Either the Bears have had a really hard time putting aside the Tyrique Stevenson incident on the Hail Mary pass and other issues surrounding the loss to the Washington Commanders, or they’re just really bad at talking about it.

On the one hand, while they only had a walk-through on Wednesday, they were all talking about moving forward to face the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday and unity. On the other hand, they seemed to support critical comments about coaching decisions made in the fourth quarter or at the end of their 18-15 loss on the Hail Mary pass.

What is clear is that the consequences of defeat still exist and that cannot be good. This definitely makes this match a true test of the team’s culture.

“Because now you can really see if we can bounce back and really stay together,” wide receiver DJ Moore said. “This is the most important thing.”

It didn’t seem like things were going really well on Wednesday.

After it was revealed that Stevenson had not been focused on his role at the start of the Hail Mary and had made the pass to Noah Brown instead of covering Brown, meetings of the captains and board of directors followed and a few players also had critical comments about WSCR. and elsewhere on the decisions made by Eberflus at the end of the 18-15 defeat.

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Jaylon Johnson thought they could have used a timeout to better set up for the Hail Mary while Moore ridiculed the use of backup center Doug Kramer to carry the ball on a goal-line play, resulting in a lost fumble.

At the obvious risk of sounding provocative, both essentially stood firm on their comments when they spoke Wednesday at Halas Hall.

“I mean, we’ve all talked about it,” Moore said. “Flus and I talked about it with the captains. And we’ll have to keep it at home next time.

“I mean, I’m not going to say ‘sorry for what I said,’ but at the same time, it is, it should have stayed at home. But I said what I said .”

Eberflus won’t disclose whether Stevenson loses his starting job or playing time because of his gaffes.

“Like I said, I’m not going to talk about Tyrique in terms of a starter, a non-starter, all those things, but I will say this: Tyrique made a lot of plays for this group and for our defense and for our football team for the last two years, and he’s going to continue to do so,” Eberflus said. “We’re behind Tyrique, and we’re with him all the way, and again, we’ll work through it as we go.”

Comments on radio shows questioning coaching seem to run counter to the team’s singular goal. However, they have the management board and captains to express the players’ feelings to Eberflus behind the scenes.

Johnson still thinks the timeout would have been the way to go before the Hail Mary.

“Yeah, I mean, just really fixing the timing. My biggest issue was, I’m sure if we’re in the finals, we have one more shot or one more possession that you’re going to call in a sense a time out to make sure the piece is written correctly.

“We want to frame this pick that way. I mean, putting your guys in the best position to succeed. I mean at the end of the day it doesn’t necessarily change the outcome, but it does change, I would say your mentality before the game this game, so I don’t mean different for us, coming in, getting a timeout, settling in and making sure we’re reminded of what we’re doing.

Johnson said he hasn’t lost faith in his head coach as a result of those decisions.

When asked if he still supports Eberflus, Johnson replied: “Yes, he is our head coach.”

It didn’t seem like an enthusiastic vote of confidence and it took Johnson back to last year when he was asked if he was behind former Bears QB Justin Fields.

“How can we continue to believe in him? I mean, I feel like it’s honestly part of the job,” Johnson said. “You would think, I mean (expletive), as long as someone is your head coach, I mean the same thing, in a sense with the quarterback situation where everyone was asking, ‘Are you behind Justin?

“He’s our quarterback. He’s who we go with. But I mean, whoever’s in that position, whoever’s in our locker room, whoever our coaches are, that’s who we believe in. That’s who we have confidence to lead us to a championship.”

Cole Kmet also told the media on Monday that some players are deceiving themselves in the way they train.

“I talked to Cole about it, but it’s really about connecting on every play, and that’s really what happens every week,” Eberflus said. “Again, you will have to ask him exactly what he was referring to.

“I don’t know exactly what it was about, but we had a general conversation about it. It’s about wiring, snap cycle, doing our job and being where you’re supposed to be when you’re supposed to be there.

Stevenson wasn’t where he was supposed to be, but Kmet had said he wasn’t necessarily talking about Stevenson and that play.

Regardless, Eberflus’ idea is to remove any discussion of the punishment Stevenson is facing, even if there is one.

“Like I said, I’m not going to talk about Tyrique in terms of a starter, a non-starter, all those things,” Eberflus said. “But I will say this. Tyrique has made a lot of plays for this group, for our defense and for our football team over the last two years, and he’s going to continue to do so.

“We’re behind Tyrique, and we’re with him all the way, and again, we’ll work through it as we go.”

This doesn’t sound like the difficult principle of HITS that was talked about so much when Eberflus became coach, if Stevenson goes unpunished.

Eberflus doesn’t care what it looks like. He wants information on penalties or fines to remain “internal”.

He also doesn’t worry that he has lost the respect of his players in any way for the decisions or the way it was handled.

“I’m going to be the man I’ve been and the leader I’ve been and stay steady through the whole process,” Eberflus said. “We’re a team that’s growing, and we’re a team that’s getting better, and we’re going to overcome this adversity.”

Moore summarized the company’s line in a way that made it seem like they’d all stated it in the past, even though they’re still talking about it well beyond the end of the “rule 24-hour universal service.

“It just moves on to the next one,” Moore said. “We’re not below .500. The sky’s not falling, so let’s move on to the next opponent, it’s the Cardinals and we just have to find a way to be 1-0 next week.”

They would then be 5-3 for the season, and some of the pressure might have fallen on the coaching staff at this point, but the loss was definitely a missed opportunity to be even better.

Twitter: BearsOnSI