MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Mike Evans, Demarcus Robinson and Deebo Samuel caught touchdown passes from Brock Purdy, and the San Francisco 49ers routed the Los Angeles Rams 27-7 Friday in the first NFL regular-season game in Australia.
Purdy passed for 205 yards against the Rams' ineffective defense at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in front of 100,021 fans, the seventh-largest regular season crowd in NFL history.
Australia's sporting capital reveled
in its first real taste of American football — and in a dominant win by the 49ers, who had already won many Aussies' affection by traveling to Melbourne a week earlier than the Rams, who only boomeranged in on Thursday morning.
A party atmosphere prevailed even with a Friday morning kickoff necessary to hit the lucrative primetime television audiences in the U.S. The fans got another memorable chapter in this NFC West rivalry as the 49ers blasted the preseason Super Bowl favorite Rams with superior play on both sides of the ball.
Kyren Williams scored the NFL’s first Australian touchdown on a 5-yard rush to begin the second quarter. but the Rams were a disaster Down Under. Los Angeles hadn't lost by more than seven points since November 2024.
While Purdy's offense managed enough big plays to win, the San Francisco defense frustrated NFL MVP Matthew Stafford into a 15-of-25 performance for just 155 yards. The Niners held the NFL's best offense last season to one score, even stopping Stafford on a fourth-down quarterback sneak from the San Francisco 1 in the third quarter.
Reigning AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett was practically invisible in his Rams debut after missing much of training camp with aches, recording zero tackles.
Much of the pregame talk for this trip centered around the teams’ starkly differing methods of preparation: The 49ers ingratiated themselves to the local fans as their body clocks adjusted, while the Rams stayed home until less than two days before kickoff, keeping their body clocks on California time.
Both teams started with understandable sluggishness for a 10:35 a.m. kickoff, but Williams' TD run finally got the crowd cheering. The quarterbacks then traded interceptions before Purdy shook off a shaky start and found former Rams receiver Robinson on a 39-yard post route.
San Francisco surged out of halftime, with Samuel's 45-yard kickoff return leading to Evans' TD catch over new Rams cornerback Jaylen Watson.
The Rams drove deep into the red zone, but after Puka Nacua was ruled down inches outside the goal line, the 49ers stuffed Stafford.
The 49ers host Miami on Sunday, Sept. 20.
The Rams host the New York Giants on Monday, Sept. 21.
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