If the Bears punish Tyreke Stevenson, why not Shane Waldron?

There has been a lot of talk about the possible punishment or suspension of Bears cornerback Tyreke Stevenson following his gaffe on a Hail Mary pass in Washington.

Coach Matt Eberflus or the Bears have not commented on this situation because everything remains “inside,” but Dan Wiederer of the Tribune commented on Twitter that it appears to be leaning toward someone else starting for him in this situation. week. Wiederer did not say that this was definitely happening, only that it seemed to be going in that direction. But countless social media users were quick to tout it as a fact that Stevenson was already on the bench.

He could, but it appears this is a tough time for the Bears to consider keeping anyone on the bench.

They aren’t sure they’ll have quarterback Kyler Gordon back yet. The hamstrings are difficult, although he was able to train on Friday. He could just as quickly leave Sunday’s game with an injury. And guard Jaquan Brisker is out again with a concussion.

They played Washington without 40% of their usual secondary and held Jayden Daniels to four field goals until an errant pass and a bad play occurred when Stevenson flew in and handed the ball to the player he was supposed to be covering. Stevenson might have been in position had he not been chatting to fans with his back turned when the game started.

Tyrique Stevenson’s other mistakes

This play wasn’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 game.

An unnecessary roughing penalty early in the game for a punk move and the loss of Terry McLaurin on a 61-yard deep pass weren’t bright spots for Stevenson either.

Stevenson’s season got off to a spectacular start after a strange situation. He did not start the first match, although he is the starter. Hm.

Interior.

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

Since then there 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 passing accuracy, although Stathead and Pro Football Reference give Stevenson a respectable 94.3 passer rating against when targeted. He’s also allowing only 56.8% completions on target, according to Stathead, which makes you wonder what exactly PFF is looking at. He leads the Bears in passing yards with six, and that’s undeniable.

Even though he missed one game against Jacksonville with a calf injury, it was likely Stevenson had a better year than his rookie year before the Hail Mary pass. Stathead said he threw nine touchdown passes as a rookie. He’s only given up two passes this season on a team with the best red zone defense in the league.

Eberflus has always been favorable toward a potential replacement for Terell Smith, but he hasn’t been as vetted as Stevenson. He has played just 389 games on defense in his career to Stevenson’s 1,193, and only 12 games this year because he was injured while Gordon, Brisker and Stevenson were injured.

Punish him for what?

There are a lot of stupid plays and gaffes made in the NFL every week. If you’re going to start benching players for one play a game, then good luck finding someone who plays the ball flawlessly. Even a few bad games don’t seem like bench material.

The Bears would willingly hurt themselves by benching him, and for what purpose?

Stevenson is not a small child who needs to learn from his mistake. Stevenson is obviously worried about his teammates losing.

Punishing him even more doesn’t teach him anything, and really, what’s the point of just keeping him on the sidelines for a couple of games and then putting him on the field? In any case, this is a symbolic punishment. If you think he should be punished, then it should be a real punishment, or better yet a monetary fine. Money talks.

Either way, they better be careful with this punishment.

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If Eberflus benches Stevenson and then they lose to the Cardinals because their bench can’t stop Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison Jr., then it’s not Stevenson’s fault they lost. They could have tried to twist the situation this way and say that if Stevenson hadn’t deserved the penalty he would have played and they wouldn’t have lost. But in reality, Eberflus would be guilty of punishing a player who was already feeling bad about the whole situation, and then leaving his team exposed to a good passer in bad coverage.

So in this case, they would have suffered one loss due to one poor player performance last week, and then another loss due to a knee-jerk reaction from the coach.

The Bears continued to use Velus Jones Jr. He jammed punts, ran in circles, fell to the ground and missed passes, he made stupid penalties in front of the official while covering the punt team, and they finally had to get rid of him after he jammed a kickoff in his debut. And Stevenson should be benched for one bad game?

Look also at Shane Waldron

It’s already hard enough to win games in the NFL without intentionally 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 game (albeit a game-ending one), then why not suspend offensive coordinator Shane Waldron for one of the worst play calls of all time.

That run by Doug Kramer at the 1-yard line with the Bears down 12-7 in the fourth quarter may have been the worst play call in Bears history, or at least since his last bad decision or last poor decision by Luke Getsy. season. He’s likely 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 sneak against Green Bay on fourth-and-1.

Handing the ball to a center who has never handled the ball in the NFL before, with a whole host of rules to choose from and two good defenders, is certainly a more egregious mistake than what Stevenson did.

But you can’t remove an offensive coordinator, especially if you do everything he does and support him 100%, like Eberflus did.

In this regard, Eberflus’ failure to use the timeout and protect the sideline before the Hail Mary represented two truly stupid mistakes, and he was not disqualified.

Or at least it seems so. A lot of things are kept in Halas Hall, so we don’t really know anything.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

Twitter: BearsOnSI