LA Rams blunder Down Under

HOME FAVORITES: The San Francisco 49ers received warm cheers from the Melbourne crowd after gaining favor from locals, while the Los Angeles Rams came out to loud boos

Brock Purdy threw for 205 yards (187m) and three touchdowns as the San Francisco 49ers opened their season with an emphatic 27-7 win over the Los Angeles Rams yesterday in the NFL’s first regular-season game in Australia.

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, the reigning NFL MVP, had no touchdowns and was pulled late in the fourth quarter, the Super Bowl favorites outclassed by their division rivals in front of a massive crowd of 100,021 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

The attendance on a local workday — the morning kick-off suiting a US prime-time audience — was the seventh largest for a regular-season NFL game, and second only to the 49ers-Cardinals match-up at Mexico City’s Azteca in 2005 among international games.

The flags of Australia and the US are pictured on the field during the playing of the national anthem at Melbourne Cricket Ground yesterday.

Photo: Kirby Lee, Imagn Images

“What an atmosphere to get a win in,” 49ers tight end George Kittle said. “The boys played well. The juice was there all day, and I mean, anytime you get a win versus division opponent is always a great thing,” he said.

The 49ers had landed in Melbourne a week before the game to overcome jet lag and adjust for the time-zone difference with the US West Coast.

And their players were cheered warmly as they ran out onto the sprawling, oval-shaped playing field having endeared themselves to locals with their high praise for Melbourne’s coffee and food scene.

There were loud boos for the Rams, though, who arrived only the day before the game and stuck to their normal US routines, and that strategy might come under the microscope after they were dominated for much of the game.

Rams coach Scott McVay defended their preparations, saying his team fell short in multiple departments.

“Today was humbling, but sometimes life can do that to you,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of football left and we’re not going to allow this one game to do anything other than help us learn and grow,” he added.

It was a painful Rams debut for Myles Garrett, the league’s Defensive Player of the Year last season, who could not lay a glove on Purdy after a record 23 sacks with Cleveland last year.

He said he was still troubled by a knee problem from the off-season.

“This was the worst version of myself that I’ve put out there,” Garrett said.

“I have to be better. I have to recover and get back to being the player I know I can be and that I’ve shown I can be before,” he added.

49ers kicker Eddy Pineiro opened the scoring with a field goal with six minutes 15 seconds remaining in the first quarter, but the Rams hit back in the second.

Stafford found receiver Puka Nacua with a 41-yard pass to set up a five-yard touchdown run from Kyren Williams.

Both teams were moving the ball well on the ground, but interceptions prevented any further scores until Demarcus Robinson caught a 39-yard pass from Purdy to put the 49ers 10-7 up with four minutes 28 seconds left in the half.

With Stafford struggling to get his passing game going under pressure from the 49ers’ defensive line, San Francisco ramped up the intensity early in the third.

Wide receiver Mike Evans celebrated his first touchdown for his new team when he connected with Purdy on a two-yard pass as the 49ers went ahead 17-7.

The San Francisco defense then denied Nacua and Stafford, on a quarterback sneak, touchdowns by inches on consecutive plays late in the quarter.

Purdy took the 49ers straight up the other end for another touchdown on a 15-yard pass to Deebo Samuel early in the fourth.

There was no way back from there for the Rams, and Kyle Shanahan extended his winning record to 12-7 in his coaching rivalry with McVay.