The Los Angeles Rams lost to the San Francisco 49ers by a score of 27-7 in the first ever NFL game held in Australia. The 49ers put an embarrassing beatdown on the Rams as SF moves to 1-0 and Los Angeles falls to last in the NFC West at 0-1.
Brock Purdy threw three touchdowns, Kyle Shanahan called what he wanted, and Sean McVay and his Rams looked lesser on Thursday.
For the all their offseason hype, the Rams looked terrible in this game. It’s one game, and there is plenty of time for L.A. to figure
this all out, but as of Week 1, the Rams looked out matched and under prepared against the 49ers.
People will criticize L.A. and their travel strategy of basically showing up a day before the game, and that’s fair. Another perhaps more important truth is one team looked better than the other on Thursday night, and the team that looked better won.
The first half
Stafford struggled in this one as last year’s MVP didn’t appear comfortable with some questionable passes to go along with errant throws. Whereas the 49ers and Purdy came out fairly sharp against what is assumed to be a stout defense for the Rams.
The 49ers opened up the scoring with a field goal, after shutting down the Rams first two offensive drives.
On L.A.’s third drive, Stafford showed some life when he found Puka Nacua for a long gain, an incredible play by Puka, and then Kyren Williams capped off the drive with a touchdown to take 7-3 lead after the successful Harrison Mevis extra point.
Both Stafford and Purdy exchanged interceptions in the first half, but Purdy was the one to throw the long score when he found Demarcus Robinson to take a 10-7 lead.
Shanahan has historically given McVay and the Rams a tough time and today was no different. McVay seemed to go away from the run when it was working through the first two quarters. Given how sporadic Stafford had been, it was curious to see McVay not lean on the run game more, then again, the 49ers defense under Raheem Morris was hitting and filling lanes.
Whether it was due to travel, too much offseason hype or personnel, the 49ers looked a bit better overall in the first half, and the Rams didn’t look awful, but they didn’t appear consistent either. The 49ers took advantage and set themselves up to add on points coming out of the half.
It was 10-7, so the Rams were still in it, but they had work to do.
The second half
Coming out of the half, the 49ers drove down the field effortlessly after a good opening return by Deebo Samuel, followed by some strong runs by Christian McCaffrey, capped off by a passing touchdown of Purdy to Mike Evans.
With the score now 17-7, the Rams were likely farther behind in this contest than they had planned the entire offseason. But with plenty of time go in quarters three and four, there was still time for L.A. to respond.
And to respond, the Rams showed life as Stafford started to click finding Nacua and Adams and his tight ends to take the Rams all the way down to the 1-yard line. Then, on fourth and one, the 49ers made the stop of the year when they stuffed Stafford on a sneak attempt.
The 49ers had the ball with a chance to more or less put this game away, or take the game to the fourth quarter to make life even harder on L.A. who trailed by 10 points.
The 49ers went on to dominate the third quarter. The 17-10 score properly reflected that, and when the score was 24-7 after Purdy found Samuel for another passing score, Purdy’s third of the day, it was not up for debate that the 49ers had outplayed the Rams.
Tyler Higbee had a late fumble, Nate Landman was injured and Stetson Bennett came in late as the Rams basically gave up.
Overall and for most of the game, the Rams looked lost and they went on to lose their opening game of the 2026 season.
The Final
It’s going to be a long break for the Rams before they play the New York Giants on Monday Night Football. All the talk of a potential 17-0 season, guaranteed Super Bowl contenders, that’s all gone for L.A. now. The 49ers gutted the Rams on Netflix.
Can the Rams bounce back? They’ll have at least 16 more chances to do just that.
