INGLEWOOD, California — Sean McVay could not help but throw a playful jab Aaron Donald's way after the Los Angeles Rams' 24-9 win over the Los Angeles Chargers.

Late in the third quarter, Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert attempted to throw the ball, but his throwing arm was smacked by the Rams' Wesley Bailey, squirting the ball toward the sideline. Seeing the ball wobble out of play, Donald attempted to scoop it up and score.

However, the ball was too difficult for Donald to grab, leading to a hilarious moment on the sideline between the star, McVay, and the rest of the Rams as they watched the play unfold right before their eyes.

As he reached down to make the recovery, Donald outright missed it, and he fell onto the turf, staring into the sky as he failed to corral the ball. Replays showed the 35-year-old's right hand almost grab it before falling over and squirting through his legs and out of play.

Rams players on the sideline — including injured superstar Myles Garrett, who was on an exercise bike — could not help but laugh heartily as he saw his fellow superstar stumble and fumble out of bounds. After the win, McVay took a moment to have some fun at Donald's expense.

"Oh, man, I'm gonna give him such a hard time about that," McVay began to reporters, leading to laughs from the media in attendance.

"I mean, I saw what he was thinking because it's going right in front of you and he's thinking I'm gonna scoop and score. And then he knocks that s--- out of bounds.

"I mean, what the hell? So his face, he couldn't even look at me and make eye contact after that. But, at least we can laugh about it right now, right?"

Though the Rams enjoyed a double-digit win, the first half was unspectacular, with a 10-9 lead after the first two quarters. In the second half, the Rams' defense hunkered down and made life difficult for Herbert and the Chargers to establish anything.

Along with his remark about Donald, McVay began his postgame press conference by saying the win would not have been possible if the defense had not done the job it did against the Chargers.

"What a great job by our defense keeping us in it," McVay said. "Really couldn't have started any poorly any worse offensively. But then what I did like that our guys did, you know, I mean, we were, you know, you don't even get a first down until the two minute at the end of the first half.

"But defensively kept getting stop after stop, two legs turnover to even get us a field goal early on."

When asked if the defense did anything different in the second half, the head coach continued, "They didn't say anything except for just going out there and making their plays. Even on the sudden change when we turned the football over, you know, early on in the game. But I did think that, you know, you saw the resilience."