MELBOURNE, Australia — For 15 months, the Los Angeles Rams devised a plan to dominate an Australia game in just 30 hours between flights.It took two plays for that plan to fall apart.The Rams were halfway across the world and 17 hours from the SoFi Stadium backdrop they gave up to make this trip for the NFL’s first-ever game in Australia. What they needed was to hit a slant pass to Puka Nacua to pull within a field goal of the San Francisco 49ers in the second quarter, so Matthew Stafford fired the ball into his go-to receiver’s gut, only for him to fall short of the end zone.On fourth down, coach Sean McVay called for Stafford to take a quarterback sneak. And then he hit a brick wall for a turnover on downs.Then the 49ers drove 99 yards on the Rems’ retooled and star-studded defense to add yet another touchdown.A hallmark moment became an international embarrassment on Friday morning at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where the Rams suffered a 27-7 loss to the arch rival 49ers.It was their first defeat by more than one score since the 2024 season, when Saquon Barkley and the Philadelphia Eagles ran all over them. It was also the fewest points they’d ever scored in a game with Stafford at quarterback.“This is a humbling day for us,” McVay said. “… I make no excuses. Whether you want to say it’s about travel or whatever, we just weren’t good enough in that window.”49ers dominate Down Under against rival RamsThe Rams placed a bet that flying in the day before an Australian game in order to not change body clocks could have them at their best. After all, that’s what worked so brilliantly for them last October in London, when they flew in the day before from Baltimore, kept their Eastern Time-adjusted body clocks and rolled in a 9:30 a.m. ET start to win 35-7 over the Jacksonville Jaguars in a game that gave birth to their identity of three-tight end sets.But this moment was inherently different: The body clock shift was 17 hours rather than five. The flight was 16 hours rather than seven. The setting would come in Week 1, after no preseason for their starters, rather than packed in the middle of the schedule and right before a bye week as the London game was.Rather than see themselves at their best, the Rams found themselves at their worst in Australia. They would up flying 32 hours in a span of three days just to take their worst loss in a year and a half.It was the opposite approach of the 49ers, who turned the week into an experience for the players and a chance to reset body clocks to Australian time. San Francisco must now fight the effects of trying to reset those body clocks back to Pacific Time ahead of the final 16 games, and perhaps that’s Los Angeles’ edge in never changing at all. It’s possible that’s the trade-off in these two disparate approaches.“I know everyone’s going to make a huge deal about that and be asking about the travel s—,” wide receiver Davante Adams said. “That had nothing to do with it. We just have to play better.”