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.”
