49ers easily defeat ‘withered’ Rams in battle of competing Australian jet lag strategies

MELBOURNE — The San Francisco 49ers easily dispatched the “withered” — and perhaps jet-lagged — Los Angeles Rams on Friday, 27-7, scoring a decisive victory for hyper-punctual business travelers across the globe.

The NFL’s first game in Australia showcased competing, radically opposing strategies on how to battle jet lag in long-haul international travel.

The victorious 49ers arrived in Melbourne on Sept. 4 for a NFC West battle that kicked off at 10:37 a.m. AEST on Friday — or 8:37 p.m. EDT/5:37 p.m. PDT on Thursday.

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“It was definitely worth it coming a little bit early,” said 49ers wide receiver Mike Evans, who caught 6 passes for 49 yards and a touchdown.

“I felt like we got acclimated. DP (strength and conditioning coach Dustin Perry) and (coach) Kyle (Shanahan) did a great job of getting us there early and all the guys, we attacked it. We didn’t complain. We actually enjoyed being out here in Melbourne.”

The vanquished Rams, who entered Friday’s contest as a 3.5-point favorite, didn’t get into town until early Thursday morning Down Under time, about 28 hours ahead of kickoff.

“We thought that was the best plan of attack in terms of our approach,” Rams coach Sean McVay said after the game. “We didn’t have the result that we wanted today.”

San Francisco outscored L.A., 17-0, after halftime and 49ers linebacker Fred Warner said the Rams clearly weakened down the stretch.

“I think it was definitely a matter of us feeling like we got stronger as the game went on,” Warner said. “The opposing team, it felt like they kind of withered away.”

San Francisco appeared to have taken the more conventional game plan to beat jet lag, getting to its destination as far ahead of kickoff as possible and living a week in the new time zone to recover from a brutal 15-hour plane ride.

L.A.’s unconventional strategy was aimed at keeping the players’ body clocks on schedule, in hopes of tricking their heads, torsos, arms and legs into believing it was just another 5:37 p.m. kickoff.

“I don’t believe that’s why we didn’t play well enough. I really don’t,” McVay said. “Listen, I’m more than comfortable (with the travel schedule). That’s something I’ll always make the decisions that I think are the best for the football team.”

He added: “It’s easy in hindsight to say it was a miss. Those are responsibilities that I’ll take. Then you got to be able to look at it. I’ll always look at myself inside-out and figure out where I can improve.”

At least a handful of 49ers had no idea they arrived had arrived in Australia so far head of the Rams.

“When did they get out here?” 49ers WR Evans asked reporters after the game.

When told L.A. showed up on Thursday, Evans appeared to be genuinely shocked.

“Oh, dang!” he said. “I mean, you got to give your body time to adjust.”

Janis Mackey Frayer reported from Melbourne and David K. Li from New York City.