LANDOVER, Md. — Tyrique Stevenson twice declined to speak to reporters after Sunday’s game.

There’s not much the Bears cornerback could have said that would have accounted for his error in judgment — a nice way of putting it — on the final play of the Washington Commanders’ 18-15 victory.

It was clear as day from the press box. Even from the opposite end zone, I had a straight sight line to Stevenson — with his back turned to the field and facing the stands — pointing, waving, posing and generally taunting Commanders fans.

The ball was snapped at the Washington 48-yard line and Stevenson was oblivious to the play being underway. You may have seen it on social media by now. By the time Stevenson turned around, three Commanders receivers on his side of the field were going full speed toward the goal line.

They had reached about the Bears 25-yard line before Stevenson realized a play was happening and he was one of 11 players on the field charged with trying to stop it.

Preposterous, right?

A thoughtless violation of Bears coach Matt Eberflus’ HITS principle, right?

Yes and yes. Stevenson had time to recover as quarterback Jayden Daniels held on to the ball for 12.79 seconds, according to NextGen Stats, rolling right, coming back left and finally launching the ball from his 35-yard line.

Crazy things can happen in a large crowd of players, but the Bears played this about as poorly as you can imagine. Commanders wide receiver Noah Brown was all alone behind the mass, and when the ball emerged from the scrum — the Bears had seven defenders near the goal line — it was an easy catch for the only player in the end zone.

Game over.

“To Chicago and teammates my apologies for lack of awareness and focus,” Stevenson wrote in a social media post more than 2½ hours after the game. “The game ain’t over until zeros hit the clock. Can’t take anything for granted. Notes taken, improvement will happen.”

Will Stevenson start Sunday at Arizona or will he be replaced in the lineup by Terell Smith? If Eberflus doesn’t come down on Stevenson, are there any teeth behind the whole HITS thing or is it just a nifty coaching acronym that doesn’t mean a whole lot?

Every team goes through end-of-half and end-of-game scenarios. There has to be a defender in front, a player coming downhill behind him and another player behind him to play the tip in the event someone leaks out behind the pack. That’s where you saw Brown, who Stevenson confirmed Monday was his responsibility.

Instead Stevenson came flying in from the side of the play. There’s no way Eberflus coached the defensive backs by saying, “It’s recess, fellas. Ball is in the air. Go get it.”

If Daniels had an aiming point, it was 6-foot-5 tight end Zach Ertz, who was Washington’s designated jumper in this situation. The Commanders had wide receiver Terry McLaurin in front of him, and Brown was to be the guy in the back.

“I don’t know if I got a hand on the ball, but it was almost a hockey assist,” Ertz told me as he walked out of the locker room. “I went up for the ball and (Stevenson) maybe tipped it up and it fell right to Noah. … Floated right into his hands.”

Was Ertz stunned to see Brown all alone in the end zone?

“I think a lot of defensive guys, they see the ball go in the air on that play and they all converge on the ball just to try to knock it down,” Ertz said. “We just got the tip to go to Noah. Crazy. Never had a play like that.”

Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson gave the most realistic answer. He was trying to box out McLaurin, whom the Bears wanted to prevent from making the play.

“There should never be somebody wide open in the back of the end zone,” Johnson said. “It’s a Hail Mary. They’re not going to call the holding. They’re not going to call pass interference. It’s a f------ free play to beat your man up. My focus, my energy was on not letting my guy get into the end zone. Hitting him. Being physical. Trying to do what I can to not let my guy catch the ball.”

McLaurin didn’t catch the ball, but Brown was left all alone and Eberflus will have to answer questions for some time.

I think the Bears win if they defend the penultimate play differently. Six seconds remained after Washington used its final timeout, and the Commanders were on their 35-yard line. Daniels wasn’t 100% after a rib injury knocked him out the week before. And I’m not sure if there’s a quarterback who can sling the ball far enough to run a Hail Mary from 65 yards away, knowing he has to drop back a good distance to allow receivers to run that far.

The Bears gave up the sideline, though, and allowed a free completion to McLaurin, who gained 13 yards before getting out of bounds to stop the clock with two seconds remaining.

“That was a huge part of that,” Ertz said. “If we’re 10 yards further behind, we’re not able to throw a Hail Mary. There are just little plays that continually add up in a football game.”

The Bears defended the sideline late in the second quarter to prevent the Commanders from reaching field-goal range. If memory serves, it was defensive end DeMarcus Walker standing within a few yards of the Washington sideline when the ball was snapped.

Eberflus chose to defend the end zone on the penultimate play.

“You’re defending touchdown there,” he said. “Them throwing a ball for 13 yards or 10 yards, whatever it is, doesn’t really matter. It’s always going to come down to that last play … and we’ve got to execute on that one.”

He’s not wrong. But Daniels’ heave from his 35-yard line — that’s where he cut the ball loose after it was snapped at the 48 — didn’t quite reach the end zone before it was tipped. He was at his outer range and the Bears allowed him to get there with the free 13 yards.

Eberflus could have pressured on the Hail Mary and didn’t. The biggest failure was the lack of execution by the players. But it’s fair to wonder about the strategy to let the Commanders even get in Hail Mary range.

The right scenario to run a dive with a 300-pound fullback from the 1-yard line with a little more than six minutes to play is when you’re ahead by 10 or more or trailing by about 20. The Bears were down 12-7 when offensive coordinator Shane Waldron dialed up the call for reserve center Doug Kramer Jr., who was lined up in the I-formation ahead of tailback Roschon Johnson. The Bears had been mostly a mess on offense all game, and this was a chance to take the lead.

Kramer never secured the handoff. Commanders defensive tackle Johnny Newton, the rookie out of Illinois, recovered and the Bears were stunned.

They had finally gotten moving. D’Andre Swift busted off a 22-yard run with a nifty hurdle move. Caleb Williams dropped a dime to DJ Moore down the sideline for 27 yards, and you can’t overlook the sidearm throw Williams made to DeAndre Carter to get them to the 1.

“I made a mistake,” Kramer said. “It’s tough. We were excited and I appreciate Shane for having the trust in me to call it. But, yeah, made a mistake. Dropped the ball on the 1-yard line.”

Kramer didn’t try to blame anyone else or even talk about the exchange. “Fumbled it,” was all he said.

“We’ve been repping it for a couple weeks,” he said. “I felt comfortable in the situation. I think Caleb did and obviously Shane was comfortable enough to call it. Unfortunately, I didn’t make the play.”

The Bears have been really proficient with that package, putting Kramer in the backfield for goal-line and short-yardage situations. Johnson has been effective getting into the end zone. Might as well stick with that while it’s working.

The jumbo guy scoring is fun. It would have been a social media hit. But a fumble on that play, in a game in which the offense fizzled, is a rough look for everyone involved.

“It’s a play we’ve worked on numerous times since he’s been in there,” Eberflus said. “And we’ve worked the play and the mechanics and handed it off to him numerous times, and we just have to do it better.

“It’s a 1-yard play and we felt that a big guy like that taking a dive could do that.”

Fortunately the defense held quickly, forcing the Commanders to punt after only three plays. The Bears handed the ball to Johnson on the 1-yard line on the ensuing possession, giving them the lead with 25 seconds remaining — a lead that would be short-lived.