Tyrique Stevenson Has Been Benched To Start The Game Against Arizona As Punishment For His Role In The Hail Mary Fiasco Last Week

But sources say that Stevenson, who has started every game this season for Chicago, will not start in today's game against the Cardinals, a one-week demotion because of his actions on the Hail Mary play. Stevenson will be active, though, and is expected to rotate in with cornerback Terell Smith.

If all goes well, this is expected to be the last step in the process to unwind from a tumultuous week that began when he was seen motioning to fans rather than putting a body on Brown before the game-winning catch.

Stevenson publicly apologized on social media the night of the game, saying, "Notes taken, improvement will happen." He then apologized to teammates in person on Monday, later telling reporters, "I know I let them down and those guys hold me to a higher standard such as everybody in this building. ... I let the moment get too big and it's something that can never happen again."

I don't know what the solution is to the Bears' lack of discipline, but my gut says that this isn't it. Tyrique Stevenson has started every game for basically his entire career. He apologized. He knows how much he fucked up. This is one of those situations where I wish that the team could handle the discipline in the locker room and leave the coaches out of it. The time for the coaching staff to install a culture where the hail mary last weekend was impossible has come and gone and benching a starter for a series a week after the fact isn't going to make a lightswitch come on for the entire group. If anything I could see this being more of a distraction. You're carrying last week into this week. And for what? To give the illusion that the coaching staff has a culture of accountability and discipline? Is Eberflus going to suspend himself for not using his time outs properly and not setting up the defense properly on the play that set up the hail mary? My guess is no. 

I hope the players are able to block out the noise and the bullshit because this is absolutely a must-win game now for the Bears. This is a big time "circle the wagons" game. You can either rally around what happened last week and get better or the entire 2024 project collapses. It the Bears win today it will be Eberflus' first sunday road win of his career. That is a stat that feels fake, but Eberflus only has three road wins in his 3 years and they were all in primetime. Who could forget the 12-10 barn burner on Monday Night last year against the Vikings and Josh Dobbs.

With all this being said, I am choosing to believe again. I think the Bears win. Buckle up.