With 14 penalties and several other mistakes, the Bears' 41-9 win over Buffalo was far from perfect.
Former Bears coach Mike Ditka once said those who live in the past are cowards and losers.
Matt Nagy is starting to sound more like Ditka every day.
Nagy on Monday said he's not interested in the team's past NFC North failures, as the Bears prepare for a stretch of three straight divisional games in 12 days beginning Sunday at home with the Detroit Lions.
The Bears (5-3) have lost 10 straight NFC North games, although Nagy has been responsible for only one of those. They've lost nine of the last 10 to the Lions, the doormats of the division until they were replaced by the Bears.
"We're in such a good place right now as an organization, the vibe that we have," Nagy said. "We're learning how to win in different ways. We've learned what losing's about and how you respond from that.
The upcoming divisional stretch is all the more difficult after the NFL schedule makers got ahold of the Bears on Monday, and changed the time of their Nov. 18 home game with the Minnesota Vikings. It has been flexed to a Sunday night, meaning the Bears' 12-game stretch with three games includes a Sunday night game, and then a Thursday 11:30 a.m. game (central time) on the road. It's not much recovery time.
Nagy called the national telecast a challenge they welcome, but the Bears won't be able to handle many challenges if they fail to play with more intelligence than they did on Sunday against the awful Buffalo Bills.
The Bears committed 14 penalties and had a few other problems.
Mitchell Trubisky experienced one of his more erratic games, with a wild throw for an interception, and also a refusal to throw the ball away on a third-down in field goal range. It resulted in a sack and fumble that took them out of kicker Cody Parkey's range.
The penalties obviously shouldn't be a problem. Silly mistakes might be more complicated.
The Bears had 14 penalties on Sunday, or two more penalties than pass completions.
Linebacker Aaron Lynch fit into the selfish and stupid category when he picked up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for doing several pelvic thrusts in an X-rated post-sack celebration.
"That's the last one he's gonna have," Nagy said.
The Bears were fortunate the game was so out of hand then.
Left tackle Charles Leno drew three flags for false starts.
"That was a tough stretch for him," Nagy said. "He knows that. He felt bad during the game, he felt bad after the game.
Trubisky committed a few of the bigger gaffes. He said his interception "sailed" on his throw to Trey Burton. Quarterbacks coach Dave Ragone blamed it on a combination of poor footwork, and handwork.
Trubisky's other big mistake was not throwing away the ball near the sideline with the Bears in field goal range on their first possession. It resulted in a sack and fumble that took the Bears out of Cody Parkey's field goal range.
Ragone said he and Nagy both have made it a point to tell Trubisky he has to do a better job of knowing when to give up on a play and throw it out of bounds.
Nagy called some of the sloppiness by the entire offense the result of not getting into a rhythm. The Bears had only 46 plays, largely due to their defense scoring two touchdowns.
"So you have games where you don't always get in a rhythm," Nagy said. "It was a weird game offensively for us, for just different reasons.
--TE Adam Shaheen could return to practice this week after missing the season's first half with a preseason foot injury.
A possible concussion suffered Sunday by tight end Dion Sims will not be a factor for Nagy in determining whether Shaheen is activated.
--WR Taylor Gabriel (knee) and defensive end Bilal Nichols (knee) are expected to be available for Sunday's game. More will be known later in the week on Khalil Mack (ankle) and Allen Robinson (groin).
--Nagy didn't want to divulge much about his decision to use safety Eddie Jackson on offense for one play. He went in motion but didn't get the ball as it went to Tarik Cohen.
"Just little fun," Nagy said. "You know, we'll see where it goes. But I know one thing: He was excited as hell when he found out he was going in there.