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It was 49ers’ Travel Plan 27, Rams’ Travel Plan 7 in the second game of the NFL season Thursday night in Australia.
Or so it seemed.
After so much talk beforehand about the 49ers making the journey to Melbourne a week ahead of the game while the Rams remained in Los Angeles and then made the long trip to get to Australia a day ahead of kickoff, only one team appeared energized for a game that began at 10:35 a.m. Friday local time.
That certainly wasn’t the Rams, the overwhelming Super Bowl favorite entering the season.
“Sometimes sports can humble you,” Rams coach Sean McVay said during his postgame news conference in Melbourne. “And today was one of those days. I make no excuses. And whether you want to say it’s about travel, whatever—we just weren’t good enough in that window. I didn’t coach good enough. And we’ll look at it and we’ll move forward. And that’s where we’re at right now.”
The Rams had been 3-0 in their previous international games under McVay. They used a similar strategy in traveling to London last season for a game in which they defeated the Jaguars handily.
“I don’t believe that that’s why we didn’t play well enough,” McVay said. “I really don’t.”
Whatever the cause, the Rams were far from at their best. Matthew Stafford, the reigning league MVP, threw an interception, failed to reach the end zone on a fourth-down quarterback sneak from the 1-yard line and finished the game on the bench. The Rams went to backup Stetson Bennett with a little more than three minutes remaining and the outcome well in hand.
“This was the worst version of myself that I’ve put out there,” star pass rusher Myles Garrett said after his Rams debut. “And I’ve got to be better. I’ve got to find a way to recover and get back to the player I know I can be and I’ve shown that I’ve been before.”
The event did seem to further the NFL’s global ambitions. The attendance of 100,021 was the seventh-largest ever for an NFL regular season game. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell got into the spirit by putting on a kangaroo jacket on the Netflix pregame set.
“It was a great atmosphere,” McVay said. “Give credit to the 49ers. They deserve it. And we’re 0-1 and we’ll move forward.”
The Rams have plenty of time to regroup. They didn’t have Aaron Donald, the three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year who came out of retirement late last month to rejoin them, on the trip to Australia with them. Even so, it was a dismal performance to start a season of great expectations after the Rams traded for Garrett, a two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, and standout cornerback Trent McDuffie in the offseason. One columnist had predicted an undefeated season.
The NFL will take two days off ahead of the full slate of Sunday games after beginning the season Wednesday night in Seattle. The Seahawks celebrated their Super Bowl title from last season, welcomed their new ownership group led by the Khosla family and overcame a 10-point deficit to beat the Patriots, 13-10. It was a rematch of the Super Bowl won in February by the Seahawks in Santa Clara, Calif.
But the opening-night game was notable mostly for the three interceptions thrown by Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, all in the fourth quarter, and two significant injuries.
Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold exited the game with a hip injury suffered on his team’s opening offensive possession and did not return. Coach Mike Macdonald said during his postgame news conference that further testing was needed to determine the severity of Darnold’s injury but a fracture had been ruled out. It appears likely that Darnold will miss at least one game. Drew Lock, who orchestrated the victory in a relief appearance Wednesday, would take over as the fill-in starter.
Patriots wide receiver A.J. Brown, obtained in an offseason trade with the Eagles, had only three catches for 26 yards and left the game after reportedly suffering a high ankle sprain. He is expected to be sidelined for at least four weeks.
It was a highly disappointing start to the season for the Patriots after a turbulent offseason in which their coach, Mike Vrabel, was heavily scrutinized because of his relationship with reporter Dianna Russini, who resigned from The Athletic.
