Three plays after the drop, as the Bills prepared to punt the ball back to the Steelers in overtime, Stevie Johnson walked dejectedly to the sideline, took off his helmet and sat down at the far right end of the bench.

Johnson turned sideways, his legs dangling off the end of the bench, and stared at the video screen above the far end zone, where he had let the game slip through his hands moments before. He remained that way until the end, unwilling to look out at the real action unfolding on the field.

Just once, Johnson shifted to his right and toward the field, where the Steelers were moving away from him, toward a winning score. He quickly turned his gaze back toward the video board, as if hoping this surreal scene might reverse itself, and he could run back out and have the play back.

But there were no do-overs. After an excruciating, seven-minute drive, Shaun Suisham booted a 41-yard field goal, giving the Steelers a 19-16 win and sending the Bills to their third overtime loss of the season.

Johnson walked to the wall behind the bench, as if looking for a place to hide. Then he walked straight to the tunnel, without stopping to shake hands with the Steelers. He peeled off his red gloves and tossed them aside. He ripped the tape off his hands. Johnson went into the locker room and wept at his locker.

"Man, he was over there crying his eyes out," said George Wilson. "I went over and said, 'There's nothing you can do about that play. Leave it out there on the field.'"

Johnson couldn't let it go. He told the Bills' PR staff that he wanted to go to the interview room. It was a good thing that he wanted to face the music in public. He said he was mainly devastated for his teammates. But he also wallowed in self-pity.

"How would you feel?" Johnson said. "You go through that whole game knowing you've got a big team like the Pittsburgh Steelers and you've got this kid coming up in the NFL making plays and all of a sudden when the biggest play needs to be made, you don't make it. ... I'll never get over it. Ever."

It got more pathetic later, when Johnson felt it necessary to oblige the people who follow him on his personal Twitter account: "I praise you 24/7!!!! And this how you do me!!! You expect me to learn from this??? How??? I'll never forget this!!! Ever!!! Thx tho ... "

Wow. I suspect the Creator has bigger concerns than a rising NFL star dropping a pass that costs his team a game.

Johnson is new to this. A year ago, he couldn't get on the field. In a matter of weeks, he's gone from a nobody to a national star to a goat.

Johnson dropped five passes. If he had caught the bomb in OT, it would have given the Bills their biggest win in years. Ryan Fitzpatrick would have gone over 300 yards and had fans clamoring for a statue. But Johnson dropped it.

Some perspective is in order here. Luckily, Andre Reed was in the locker room to provide it.

"You're going to drop a few," said Reed, who learned over the weekend that he's again a semifinalist for the Hall of Fame. "The great players drop them. Rice dropped them. Sharpe dropped them. Brown dropped them. Carter dropped them. We all dropped 'em. We're not perfect, man.

"The irony is that it came so fast for him," Reed said. "It's hard to get to that level. He's got to let it go. It's hard to let it go. Believe me!"

You want to talk about getting over failure? Reed and his buddies know a thing or two about it. Try losing four straight Super Bowls, Stevie. You think the Bills had to let go of a few personal disappointments along the way?

"Yeah, but you know what?" Reed said. "We came back the next year."

Johnson was the toast of the town last week, a guest on Jim Rome and ESPN. Everyone wanted a piece of him. After the second or third drop, he seemed like a player who had suddenly become aware that the world was watching.

Expectations change. You accept the bad with the good. You bounce back. Who understands that better than the Bills? Look around the room. Chris Kelsay and Brian Moorman have suffered through more of these heart-breaking losses than they care to count. The Dallas game on Monday night. Last year's opener at New England, the night Donte Whitner cried. The two other overtime losses this year.

You think it was easy for Chan Gailey to get over an OT loss to the Chiefs, the team that fired him two weeks before the season a year ago?

"I talked to Steve a little bit," said Lee Evans, who had a costly fumble and a poor day receiving. "He was obviously emotional. But we still support him. He's made a ton of plays for this team. You can't discount any of that. So hopefully it'll be a time for him to reflect, grow up a little bit and come back better."

At 0-5, the Bills were the laughingstock of the NFL. They didn't feel sorry for themselves. They got better. No one is too excited about playing them now. They're 2-9. It's not as if Johnson's drop cost them a playoff spot.

It's not what happens to them, it's how they come back from it. That's what keeps Bills fans pulling for this bunch. Sure, a lot of fans want a high draft pick. Some of them might even see the drop as a good thing. But at least a Buffalo fan can puff out his chest and say his team keeps coming back and never quits.

For now, the Bills' resilient character is what defines them. The players really seem to believe it will turn around some day. They cling to their belief that it's all leading somewhere, that there's a reward behind all the crushing defeats.

That's what Johnson needs to figure out now. His dropped pass doesn't exist apart from all the other Bills' flubs and failures. It's just another disappointment along the way.

Wilson is right. It doesn't define him, no more than an interception or fumble or missed field goal defines any of his teammates.

"That play is not going to drag Steve down," Wilson said. "When we win, we enjoy it for 24 hours. When we lose, we let it soak in, digest it, but after 24 hours we have to move on."

No one expects Johnson to forget the drop. But if he wants to be a star, he needs to get over it. He can start by getting over himself.

jsullivan@buffnews.comnull