49ers rout Rams 27-7 in NFL’s first Australia game behind Brock Purdy’s 3 TD passes

Mike Evans, Demarcus Robinson and Deebo Samuel caught touchdown passes from Brock Purdy, and the San Francisco 49ers routed the Los Angeles Rams 27-7 Friday in the first NFL regular-season game in Australia.

Purdy passed for 205 yards against the Rams’ ineffective defense at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in front of 100,021 fans, the seventh-largest regular season crowd in NFL history.

Australia’s sporting capital reveled in its first real taste of American football — and in a dominant win by the 49ers, who had already won many Aussies’ affection by traveling to Melbourne a week earlier than the Rams, who only boomeranged in on Thursday morning.

A party atmosphere prevailed even with a Friday morning kickoff necessary to hit the lucrative primetime television audiences in the U.S. The fans got another memorable chapter in this NFC West rivalry as the 49ers blasted the preseason Super Bowl favorite Rams with superior play on both sides of the ball.

Kyren Williams scored the NFL’s first Australian touchdown on a 5-yard rush to begin the second quarter but the Rams were a disaster Down Under. Los Angeles hadn’t lost by more than seven points since November 2024.

While Purdy’s offense managed enough big…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business