PHILADELPHIA -- Not long after the Los Angeles Rams lost to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, the Rams' locker room was quiet. A group of players and coaches sat there, seemingly shocked that they were now at 2-1 after the way the game played out.
The loss to the defending Super Bowl champions was "a little demoralizing," wide receiver Davante Adams said, after Los Angeles led 26-7 early in the third quarter. The Rams had field goal attempts blocked on their final two possessions, including a potential game winner with three seconds remaining. The Eagles won 33-26 after returning the last blocked kick for a touchdown.
"It's a disappointing locker room, but it's a locker room that's going to respond," head coach Sean McVay said.
Although that may be something that's easy to say, McVay felt confident in that statement because he's seen his teams respond to adversity the past two seasons. After 3-6 (2023) and 1-4 (2024) starts the past two seasons, the Rams made the playoffs. Heading into Week 8 at 2-4 a season ago, ESPN's Football Power Index gave the Rams just a 12.8% chance to make the playoffs and a 10.8% chance to win the division. They did both.
"I think when you've been a part of going through adversity and using it as a strengthening mechanism where real growth demands a discomfort, you can draw on those experiences positively to say, 'I've been here before. I've navigated this,'" McVay said. "The reality is all you can do is the next right thing. We would've loved to have won that game yesterday. We would've loved to have had a couple things that probably [could have] changed the result of it, but that game is over with. We're a 2-1 football team."
After the game, McVay said he told his team they have an opportunity to learn from the game: "When you're 2-0, you don't learn about anybody. But when you do have a loss like this, I want to see what we're about. I know what we're about. I know we're going to respond."
Quarterback Matthew Stafford said he has "no questions or concerns about how we'll respond."
Running back Kyren Williams, who was a part of both of those Los Angeles playoff teams, said Sunday's loss to the 3-0 Eagles "is a chance of adversity."
"As a man, you run to adversity," Williams said. "...The people in this locker room, we run to that, we accept it. And for me, I know I'm more hungry now than ever because I hate the Eagles. ... But they're putting us through something that we need to get put through."
Williams said he was glad that if a loss like that was going to happen, "it happened this early in the season."
"It's only going to [help] us for later on in the season," Williams said. "You never know what's going to happen when it comes to those times in the playoffs where we need to dig down deep and find ourselves. Every man in this locker room is going to be able to do that now because of this experience here. And so, man, I'm just excited. Excited for the journey, excited for this team, excited for the individuals in my room and man, we're just going to keep punching that clock and going to work."
And win or lose, Stafford said, the Rams have to "come with the same mindset" as they prepare for Week 4 against the 3-0 Indianapolis Colts.
"I think there's a vibe, there's a maturity, there's a mental and a physical toughness that I believe that this group has that we'll see illustrated as we move forward," McVay said. "You don't have time to wallow in some of the sorrows or some of the things that didn't go the way that we want. You have to be able to look at it, correct it, and move forward so that it doesn't affect our preparation for a great football team coming in here on Sunday."