After the celebrating died down following the Bears' 24-17 win over the Packers on Sunday to clinch the NFC North, Bears coach Matt Nagy wasn't looking back reliving the win, rather the first-year coach was already focused on Chicago's next opponent: the San Francisco 49ers next week.
"It was a great day yesterday," Nagy said on Monday night during the Bears Coaches Show with Jeff Joniak. "Lots of fun, lot of excitement, and it was neat to see that, neat to be a part of it. Everybody, the whole city, the fans, the coaches the players, just everybody included, and it was a special day we'll always remember, but as you know how this thing goes, it's time to move on and get ready for San Fran."
It's the sort of on-to-the-next-challenge mindset that Nagy has preached all year. Despite a playoff berth on the line on Sunday, Nagy told his team to treat the game just like any other.
"Just wanted the guys to understand they're in a great situation to make the playoffs with a win," Nagy said. "Don't put too much pressure on ourselves and just go out and play your game, and that's what we did."
Ultimately, a bounce-back performance from quarterback Mitchell Trubisky and another stellar showing from the Bears defense were enough to punch their team's first ticket to the postseason since 2010. While Nagy didn't let himself celebrate too long before shifting focus to next week, he did stress he wanted his players to take a day to enjoy it before getting back to work. Nagy was a part of seven playoff teams during his years with the Eagles and the Chiefs, and he knows how hard it is to make the postseason.
"Once we won the game and knew that we clinched a spot, now enjoy it and understand that it's OK to do that," Nagy said. "But I also told them that when you get back in here in the building on Tuesday, there's more to this. Like I said last night, we can be happy, but we're not satisfied yet."
It's a challenge that the team has accepted. Nagy said clinching the division was just the first step and that this team won't be satisfied just making the playoffs — it expects to win come January.
"There's no complacency," Nagy said. "That's going to be that biggest message to the team, to the players and to all coaches, is that we need more and we need to understand that. We got to keep continuing to practice the way we've been practicing. We've accomplished one goal but that's not the biggest goal, and everybody knows what that is, and there's more work to be done."
