The NFL's historic first match in Australia belonged to San Francisco. The 49ers beat the LA Rams 27-7 at the MCG on Friday, the ABC reports, with quarterback Brock Purdy throwing three touchdowns while the San Francisco defence kept Matthew Stafford — last season's league MVP — in check.
The official crowd of 100,021 was the seventh-largest NFL regular-season crowd ever, and just three short of the MCG's 100,024 capacity. Stafford didn't finish the game: with the Rams down by 20, he sat out their final drive and backup Stetson Bennett ran it instead.
How it unfolded
The game was closer than the scoreboard for a half. The 49ers led 3-0 at quarter-time, Kyren Williams answered with the Rams' only touchdown, and both quarterbacks threw an interception before Purdy's touchdown pass to Robinson made it 10-7 at the break — at which point the Jonas Brothers took over the MCG for the half-time show.
The second half was San Francisco's. Big Christian McCaffrey runs set up Mike Evans's first touchdown as a 49er, and then came the game's pivot: the Rams marched to within inches — Puka Nacua's knee down just short of the line, Stafford stopped on a fourth-down sneak — and the 49ers took over on their own goal line and drove 99 yards the other way, Purdy scrambling right and finding Deebo Samuel for the touchdown. Linebacker Fred Warner then punched the ball out of Tyler Higbee's grip, Keion White came away with it, and Eddy Pineiro's low, just-enough 56-yard field goal made it 27-7.
The team that flew in a week early beat the team that landed Thursday
The travel subplot ran all week: the 49ers arrived in Melbourne a week before the game, while the Rams landed on Thursday morning. Rams coach Sean McVay stood by the late arrival. "I don't believe that's why we didn't play well enough, I really don't," he said. "It's easy in hindsight to be able to say it was a miss, but those are responsibilities that I'll take."
On the game itself, McVay didn't reach for excuses. "First of all, congratulations to the 49ers. They outplayed us in every facet. I didn't do nearly a good enough job. This is a humbling day for us. This will define us only if we allow it to."
The 49ers, for their part, sounded like tourists who'd had a good week. Tight end George Kittle, asked by ESPN about attempting a shoey, replied: "Are you trying to set me up to get in trouble? Wherever I can do one, I'm gonna try to find one in the stands." Then the summary Melbourne will keep: "We embraced going to Australia — 15-hour flight, we were here the whole week — it was a grind but we did it. I'm just proud of this team." And a farewell: "I can't wait to go home. I did love Australia though, this place is awesome."
A ground with cricket in its name spent Friday hosting gridiron, three seats off capacity. The NFL's Australian experiment has its first result — and the team that treated the trip as a week, not a commute, is the one flying home with the win.
