The Los Angeles Rams entered the 2026 NFL season as overwhelming Super Bowl favorites following their headline-grabbing offseason. They almost made the actual reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks a total afterthought even though the Rams lost two out of three to Seattle.
Well, they had their chance to make a great statement of intent down in Australia against the San Francisco 49ers, and while international games (in Week 1, nevertheless) can be noisy, the noise you heard in Melbourne was the loudest of farts.
Other than some early rushing offense dominance against San Francisco‘s vulnerable defensive interior, it was a disastrous opener on both sides of the ball for Sean McVay’s side. Brock Purdy shook off an early interception and threw touchdowns to Demarcus Robinson, Deebo Samuel, and Mike Evans. Matthew Stafford struggled with accuracy, threw a bad interception to offset the Purdy pick, and he was critically stopped on a 4th and goal sneak at the 1 when the score was 17-7 late in the third quarter. The 49ers unleashed a 99-yard touchdown drive to essentially kill the competitive portion of the game off.
Myles Garrett, the prized acquisition of the entire NFL offseason, did absolutely nothing of consequence against the 49ers offensive line. Zero stats recorded. ZERO. No sacks, no tackles, no pressures, no QB hits, nothing. He was in-and-out of the lineup and looking visibly gassed.
Purdy wasn’t sacked once and the rushing attack, which was much more evenly split between Christian McCaffrey and Kaelon Black, racked up over 170 yards against LA’s defensive line.
Advertisement
The final score was 49ers 27, Rams 7 and in the closing minutes we saw Stetson Bennett IV snaps instead of Matthew Stafford. To much debate and discussion, the Rams arrived late to Melbourne and may as well have never boarded at all.
While it’s great to see the favorites falter, we can’t lose sight of the fact that the 49ers looked really good and will be playing the Miami Dolphins and Arizona Cardinals over the next two weeks, so they could easily be 3-0 before tougher games against the Denver Broncos and Seahawks to start October. The one down note for them is a potentially serious injury to rookie receiver De’Zhaun Stribling, who was carted off with a non-contact leg injury. Hopefully it’s not an Achilles rupture for the young man.
The 49ers are atop the NFC West on division record tiebreaker over the Seahawks, who will get their first divisional game against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 2. Meanwhile, the Rams’ Week 2 game is on a Monday night at home versus the New York Giants. At least it’s much easier to root for the Giants in this scenario.
