By Ian Ransom
MELBOURNE, Sept 11 (Reuters) – Brock Purdy threw for 205 yards and three touchdowns as the San Francisco 49ers opened their season with a 27-7 win over the Los Angeles Rams on Friday in the National Football League’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 as the preseason Super Bowl favourites lost to 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 U.S. 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 (103,467) among international games.
“What an atmosphere to get a win in,” said 49ers tight end George Kittle. “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.
“And anytime you beat the Rams, it’s a great thing.”
The 49ers had landed in Melbourne a week before the game to overcome jet lag and adjust for the time-zone difference with the U.S. 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 U.S. routines, and that strategy may come under the microscope after they were dominated for much of the game.
49ers kicker Eddy Pineiro scored the first points with a field goal with 6:15 remaining in the first quarter but the Rams hit back in the second when Stafford found receiver Puka Nacua with a 41-yard pass to set up a 5-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 4:28 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 2-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 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan extended his winning record to 12-7 in his coaching rivalry with Sean McVay.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
