Bears' Nagy on Pineiro's winning kick: 'You knew that ball was going through'

It wasn't that long ago that the sound most associated with a Bears kicker was doink - or double-doink, more aptly.

Enter strong-legged Eddy Pineiro, whose clutch performance in his first road game Sunday in Denver created at least one different sound, and subsequently, a starkly different reaction.

"You could tell the second that ball left his foot yesterday, you could hear the thump and you knew that ball was going through," Matt Nagy recalled Monday following Pineiro's 53-yard buzzer beater of the Broncos, which, who knows, perhaps also catalyzes Ryan Pace finally beating his biggest demon to date as Bears general manager.

Nagy opted for the PG-rated recall of Pineiro's heroics, which also included 40- and 52-yard conversions helping Chicago steal victory from the jaws of defeat and making Pineiro the Bears' first kicker since franchise scoring leader Robbie Gould in 2011 to hit multiple 50-yarders in a game.

But some of Nagy's players, most notably Khalil Mack, used more colorful language to describe to reporters Sunday evening in an already-famous and expletive-filled news conference his support and satisfaction for Chicago's newest hero.

"Eddy P, you know what I'm saying, birthday man," Mack said. "And he came out and nailed that (expletive)."

We've yet to hear the religious Pineiro cuss, for the record, but to a man his teammates have raved about since he won the job out of camp about the swag of the ex-Raider and former Florida Gator. Reserve LB Josh Woods told us prior to Week 1 that it's needed in a locker room where only the most confident survive.

Nagy echoed those sentiments Monday.

"That's a little different for a kicker and it's good because that's confidence," the coach said. " ... The players love him and he's got that swag. That's who we are as a team, and supposedly he's got a new nickname now, too, I guess."

Eddy Dinero, or in Spanish, Eddy Money, which couldn't have been more fitting to culminate a week when Pineiro celebrated his 24th birthday Friday, the same day the famous pop rock artist passed away.

"We're on the plane last night and I'm just talking to him and he's just, thank you again for these opportunities. And it's just simple things like that that go a long way," Nagy said.

There was nothing simple about Pineiro's crunch-time bailout, but we'll venture this guess: Pineiro's performance Sunday will earn him more than one chance, baby

• Twitter: @ArthurArkush.