Kevin Byard, a safety for the Chicago Bears, has never missed an NFL game in his nine seasons. 145 consecutive, regular season, playoffs. Throughout his career, Byard has experienced triumph 80 times.
However, none of the 65 times he has lost have been as agonizing as the steel-toed boot to the you-know-where he received last weekend.
The Bears lead the Washington Commanders 15–12 with 25 seconds left, and their seasoned defense was all that was needed to preserve 76 yards and finish an exciting rally for the team’s fourth straight win.
However, everything fell apart in an instant, most notably on Jayden Daniels’ Hail Mary, his final play that went 52 yards into a crowd before Bears defender Tyrique Stevenson knocked it backward to expose receiver Noah Brown.
Completing the prayer was one thing. However, the Bears’ mishandling of that last scene brought about a completely new degree of hopelessness. The most startling aspect was that Stevenson was facing away from the action when the snap was made, interacting with spectators for over four seconds before forgetting to follow Brown.
He then attempted to perform Byard’s assigned role as the jumper, which involved jumping over a sea of bodies outside the goal line and eventually crashing the football into the end zone. To the man that he was meant to cover.
Immediately following that 18–15 loss, Byard declared from inside a startled Bears locker room, “That was a game we needed to have.” It was unthinkable. I had never experienced such a loss.
Byard reiterated the next day that he and his teammates weren’t going through the usual it’s just one loss healing process. Rather, Byard urged players to embrace the fact that the NFL’s widely-cited and enforced “24-hour rule” wasn’t universally applicable.
You might require thirty-six hours, Byard replied. Our first practice day is not until Wednesday. Thus, it might be 48. To remove it out of your system, simply take the necessary action. That is your job.
This week’s purging process at Halas Hall has been delicate and difficult, especially as fresh worries about coach Matt Eberflus’ leadership have grown in the public and, to a lesser extent, inside the Bears locker room.
Many of the team’s most esteemed leaders criticized Eberflus harshly amid all the annoyance. Additionally, the coach and his captains have had several intense discussions.
Right now? Another game is out. against the Cardinals, who are 4–4. The Bears’ season has reached a critical turning point. In the succinct words of linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, I mean, Sunday comes fast.
And it arrived quickly, forcing the Bears to face yet another public test of their fortitude, concentration, and cohesion. The Bears have once again had to activate their crisis-management program at such a critical juncture in a season that is showing great promise. The performance on Sunday might provide insight into how well their response worked.
Eberflus remarked, This is a resilient and determined group. And we have the right men in the building and the right men in the locker room to finish that.