NFL news: Five takeaways from San Francisco 49ers’ win over the Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne

The first week of the 2026/27 NFL season included a trip to the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia for an NFC West divisional rivalry between the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers.

Here, Sports News Blitz writer and Niners fan Luca Salmasi takes a look at the 49ers’ 27-7 win in the league’s inaugural southern hemisphere game.

Faithful take over Melbourne

The Melbourne match was a designated Rams home game, but much like fixtures at the SoFi Stadium in recent years, it felt like a takeover by 49ers fans.

While optimising performance and ensuring players perform at their best, the 49ers also seemed to get everything right on and off the field.

They arrived a week before the game and immediately started connecting with Australian fans, visiting schools and community centres as well as helping out with a well-known weekend tradition by handing out snags at a local Bunnings.

Although it’s understandable that the Rams prepared their schedule by sending 15 staffers out over the last two years and based their travel schedule on body recovery, it’s not a good look for fans who have waited to see you in person.

When you arrive that late, it’s as if the fans were an afterthought, and the 49ers capitalised on this perfectly.

Shanahan and Morris masterclass

Sean McVay and Chris Shula were simply outclassed by Kyle Shanahan and Raheem Morris.

Shanahan relied on his typical tactics: initially targeting the Rams with the pass before softening their interior with the run and then, on defence, applying pressure to make things uncomfortable for the opposition offence.

Morris, on the other hand, knows McVay like the back of his hand, and it was the second straight year that he outmanoeuvred every attack McVay threw at the 49ers.

This is also the third year in a row where Shanahan has run the same thing against Shula and succeeded.

When both are at full strength, the Rams lose as they rely on a battle of attrition to beat the 49ers.

It certainly isn’t awful playcalling, but it doesn’t help when they are slowly, painfully, and carefully picked apart.

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Purdy spreads the ball

Brock Purdy opened his 2026 campaign by finding three different receivers for touchdowns during the 49ers’ win.

San Francisco’s first trip to the end zone came in the second quarter when he found Demarcus Robinson for a 39-yard touchdown.

His second was a short two-yard pass to Mike Evans, while the third was to Deebo Samuel – on his return to playing for the red and gold – for a 15-yard touchdown that capped off a 99-yard drive and pushed the game out of reach for the Rams with a quarter to go.

In the end, Purdy finished proceedings with 25 of 34 attempts completed, 205 yards gained, and three touchdowns secured.

Evans makes immediate impact

Wide receiver Mike Evans made an immediate impact in his first regular-season game with the 49ers, emerging as one of Purdy’s go-to targets in the season opener.

After having five receptions for 47 yards in the first half, Evans added a touchdown to that on the opening drive of the third quarter – a two-yard touchdown and his first as a member of the 49ers.

49ers defence stands tall

San Francisco’s defence held Los Angeles to just seven points and kept the Rams off the scoreboard for three quarters.

One of the game’s biggest stops came in the third quarter when Matthew Stafford attempted to run it into the end zone on a fourth-and-one from the one-yard line.

However, the defence held firm, with linebacker Osa Odighizuwa credited for the stop, forcing a turnover on downs.

Elsewhere, linebacker Fred Warner’s return to the field brought him close to a record as he needed just two tackles to tie Hall of Famer Patrick Willis’ franchise record of 950 career tackles.

Thanks to a performance that saw five solo tackles, six assisted, and 11 combined, Warner surpassed Willis to become the 49ers’ all-time leader in career tackles.

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