Bears' Kevin Byard, Jaylon Jones share perspective on Hail Mary play

As everyone tries to make sense of how the Chicago Bears failed to execute a defensive gameplan to stop the Washington Commanders on a last-second Hail Mary that cost them the game, two of the players directly involved shared some insight.

Earlier this week, safety Kevin Byard had cornerback Jaylon Jones on his podcast "Intercepted with Kevin Byard," and the two broke down the unfortunate game-ending play. Although Tyrique Stevenson found himself in the headlines for all the wrong reasons on the play, Byard and Jones both shared their own personal perspective on the play.

"We all specific guys to get, they're coming down the field and we're glued on to them, it felt like we were covering them forever," Jones said. "We're all scraping, staying on our dude, ball goes in the air and I just remember falling to the ground but I see a black jersey by himself standing in the endzone, ball in his hands. I'm hearing the crowd going crazy and I'm just stuck. I'm trying to look at the jumbotron to see what happened but it was crazy, I'm still kind of a little bit confused but I'll never forget this."

Byard said he was planning to be further back than everyone so he could get a running start when it was time to jump and deflect the ball down to the ground.

"I was trying to be further back than everybody cause I'm thinking I need a running start to get up and jump," Byard said. "Normally when you practice it, guys are just running and the ball is being thrown while guys are still running but at this point everybody is kind of in the endzone jockeying for position. When I tried to jump somebody was pushing me from behind, I only got one hand up and I'm barely jumping off the ground. I remember seeing Rique [Tyrique Stevenson] coming from the side and he jumped super high, tipped it, and I just remember seeing the dude catch the ball. I don't even know, it was unbelievable."

All of the conversation was on Stevenson this week, and rightfully so given his actions on the final play, but to hear how the Hail Mary played out from the eyes of two defenders is quite interesting. They both believed they were in position and had the right plan on how to defend the play, it just didn't come to fruition.

This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Bears' Kevin Byard, Jaylon Jones share perspective on Hail Mary play