Although late-game comeback falls short, Rams show resiliency

Teams that want to make deep postseason run have to deal with some type of adversity in September, with the hope that learning from what is revealed during that process is good enough to get them across the finish line in January.

The Los Angeles Rams 35-32 road loss against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday showed a resiliency and toughness about this year’s group that should benefit Sean McVay’s team down the road if they study and grow from the mistakes they made.

And there were a lot of them.

“That’s the main thing you take away from this,” Rams quarterback Jared Goff said. “Obviously, we would love to win that game and finish it with a great win and a big comeback for us and hooting and hollering right now. But at the end of the day, I think you learn that we're never out of it.

“No matter what the situation is, what the game is, who we’re playing, this is a good team. We’re on the road. They had a good offense, a good defense, they’re well coached, and we came all the way back and were in the position to win that at the end. I think there’s a lot to be said for that.”

There’s no harm in losing early in the regular season to a talented team like the Bills -- that also should be playing in January. It’s a loss to an AFC conference opponent, so it won’t affect L.A.’s seeding for the postseason as much at the end of the year, particularly with an extra team in each conference reaching the playoffs this season.

As always, McVay was front and center taking full blame for how poorly his team played through three quarters.

“I did a terrible job of putting us in some really poor situations early in that game,” McVay said. “I make no excuses about it. Our guys ended up responding, we made some better adjustments, and the guys made the plays. I saw a lot of individual efforts that were outstanding. I saw a resilient group. I saw a team that stayed connected when you go down 28 to three against a really good football team. They just kept battling. They kept swinging.

“I hate it for our guys, that it ended up the way that it did and came down to some of the things that it came down to. But we’re a tough group, we’re a mentally tough group. We’re going to use this as an opportunity to respond, and we’re not going to allow the Bills to beat us twice.”

Down 28-3 in the third quarter, the Rams could have rolled over and scratched their bellies, mentally preparing for a plane ride home back to L.A. Instead, the Rams dug deep and scored 29 straight points, taking a 32-29 lead with just over four minutes left.

Ultimately, that lead would melt away, as the defense allowed Buffalo to convert a third-and-22 and gave up a defensive pass interference call on fourth down, allowing Bills tight end Tyler Kroft to score the winning touchdown on a 3-yard reception.

However, the fact that the Rams were in position to win the game after what had happened the previous three quarters was a minor miracle.

“We always pride ourselves in being a team that doesn’t blink, doesn’t flinch when adversity hits,” safety John Johnson said. “So that’s what we did. We went out there and competed to the last whistle. We didn’t get the outcome we wanted, but we learned one thing – that we’re going to fight to the end. So I guess that’s a positive we took from it.”