LAKE FOREST, Ill. –Matt Eberflus met with Tyrique Stevenson individually this week to address his actions on the Hail Mary that doomed the Bears in Washington.

For those living under a rock, Stevenson was interacting with fans, with his back to the field, when the ball was snapped. He was late engaging with the play and didn’t complete his assignment of covering Commanders receiver Noah Brown, who was wide open in the end zone and caught the decisive touchdown pass.

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Stevenson apologized on social media and again in a Monday team meeting.

He met with Eberflus later on, but the Bears head coach declined to elaborate on what was discussed.

He wouldn’t comment on whether there will be a punishment for Stevenson, either.

“I’m not going to talk about Tyrique in terms of starting, not starting, all those things,” Eberflus said. “But I will say this. Tyrique has made a lot of plays for this group and for our defense and for our football team over the last couple of years, and he’s going to continue to do that. We’re behind Tyrique, and we’re with him all the way, and again, we’ll work through this as we go.”

Eberflus has established a high standard for what he expects on every play the HITS principle, which focuses on hustle, intensity, takeaways and smarts. Stevenson didn’t honor that code in that moment and played a significant role in why the Bears lost.

Having a tangible consequence for a major blunder wasn’t entirely clear.

“The consequences for things, we lost the game and it’s important that we now focus on Arizona,” Eberflus said. “And again, that was hard, no doubt. And again, we’re moving on to Arizona and that’s important that everybody does that and that’s my job as head coach to get this group to move onto the preparation for the Arizona game.”

One thing is clear and undisputable: Stevenson is a major talent and someone the Bears need playing well to reach their potential.

Player leadership has been supportive and will continue to be, but there’s not much left to be said to Stevenson about what happened. He has apologized and the team is ready to move on.

“The stakes were at the highest that it could’ve been and he knows what came with it, so I mean there is nothing for us to say,” cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. “At the end of the day he feels already in a terrible position, so there is not too much to say. Just got to come out here. We do have a lot to say. We’ve got to build up, tell him he’s still going to play. At the end of the day we got to continue to get him in the right direction and bring him along so we can win these games.”

The key is learning from the moment improving behavior in the future. That’s what others will be looking forward as time rolls on.

“I think he did a good job just telling everybody in the building that he was sorry and he’s gonna be better and learn from it,” receiver DJ Moore said. “If he does, that’s great. if he doesn’t, then that’s when something really has to come down.”

INJURY UPDATES

The Bears offensive line is pretty banged up. LT Braxton Jones (knee) is currently out and Eberflus said his backup, Kiran Amegadjie (calf), might not be ready to play on Sunday. Teven Jenkins is also dealing with a knee issue, and he was considered limited on an estimate participation report. They have possible reinforcements, with Larry Borom fully participating and designated to return off injured reserve. The Bears also opened Ryan Bates’ practice window, so he could be an option at guard down the line.

Eberflus said he’d prefer to keep the starting five intact at this point, if they’re healthy enough to do so.