The Bears defense has few answers for the inexcusable Hail Mary mistake

LANDOVER, Md. – His voice cracking at times, Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson was stunned like every other defender in the Bears' locker room after being caught by Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels' improbable 52-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Noah Brown Burned by a ball Hail Mary – an agonizing dagger in the final game of the Bears' 18-15 loss on Sunday at Northwest Stadium.

“Pissed off,” Johnson said. “Pissed off.”

But while many of his teammates struggled to explain what went wrong, Johnson didn't need to see the film to know that there was a glaring breakdown that allowed the play to succeed.

“There should never be anyone wide open in the back of the end zone,” Johnson said. “We just didn’t execute it well enough. I can't say… who should be there. I don't know. But no one should ever be wide open in the back of the end zone. We all have to find a way to achieve better results in the home stretch.”

It will take a lot of time to analyze this. There were two seconds left in the game and the ball was on the Commanders' 48-yard line. The victory seemed so assured that exuberant Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson, surely feeling that the final play was a fait accompli as always, gestured toward the fans and raised his arms, keeping his back to the line of scrimmage. Line rotated while the ball was snapped.

Stevenson quickly pivoted to defend the play. Daniels dodged the Bears' rush and scrambled from the left side of the field to the right. He twisted his body and unleashed a powerful pass to a scrum of players — including Bears defenders Elijah Hicks, Kevin Byard, Jaylon Jones and Stevenson — inside the 5-yard line.

Stevenson jumped to the front of the pile and appeared to tip the ball. And it jumped over the scrimmage to an open Brown in the end zone. The piece lasted 17 seconds from start to finish. There was delirium on one side and devastation on the other.

Stevenson, who had a rough day including an unnecessary scuffle, said he would speak Monday. But apologized for his appearance on Twitter:

“To Chicago and his teammates, I apologize for the lack of attention and focus…. The game is only over when there are zeros on the clock. I can't take anything for granted. Notes taken, improvements will occur.”

But whether anyone spoke or not, there was a strong sense of disappointment and frustration in the Bears' locker room.

“It’s kind of a blur right now,” Hicks said. “I have to look at it. But from what I remember, it felt like this piece took all day. This piece took forever. I don’t know how long – 17 seconds? That’s crazy.”

The Bears practice the Hail Mary game like all NFL teams do. But in the actual moment it is always more chaotic.

“Anything can happen during a Hail Mary,” Byard said. “You could talk about the details and what everyone should do. Obviously the quarterback had a long time to get there.

“In this scenario, I'm supposed to be the jumper trying to jump and throw the ball downfield. But just standing back there and crowding everyone together, it's hard to get that perspective, hard to get a real start. When the ball is in the air you try to fight for position and the ball is tipped in the air. In the end, the man behind him was just playing. We probably didn’t implement it the way we should have.”

The collapse on the final play was a cruel turn of events for the Bears' defense, giving the Bears a chance to steal the game by holding the Commanders without a touchdown until that fateful play.

So when running back Roschon Johnson scored on a one-yard run and the Bears added a two-point conversion with 25 seconds to play, all the Bears defense had to do was prevent a miracle. After their passed pawn's work of bending but not breaking to give the Bears a chance, the impossible somehow happened.

Daniels completed passes of 11 yards to Zach Ertz and 13 yards to Terry McLaurin to give the Commanders a first down at the Bears' 48-yard line. Then the whole hail broke out.

Allowing Daniels to get within striking distance didn't help. And the Bears had many other problems that led to their demise. But it was still the Ave Maria that defeated them.

“It all comes down to this game – executing it in this time,” Johnson said. “We can look back and say there were many times where we could have won the game. But no other game has had more intensity and more at stake than this one. We have to find a way to emerge victorious.”

Subsequently, that was the end result for most Bears defenders. Linebacker TJ Edwards was caught in no man's land in the middle of the field – neither rushing Daniels nor defending the pass. When asked if he was Daniels' “spy” in this piece, he spoke for several.

“In a way. I have to go back and look at it and see what we could have done differently,” Edwards said. “You know, it’s a Hail Mary. I don't know.”