{"id":8897,"date":"2026-09-11T04:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T04:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=8897"},"modified":"2026-09-11T04:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T04:16:08","slug":"studs-and-duds-purdy-bosa-and-the-physical-49ers-manhandle-rams-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=8897","title":{"rendered":"Studs and Duds: Purdy, Bosa and the physical 49ers manhandle Rams in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>The NFL shipped two bitter NFC West rivals 8,000 miles across the Pacific to play a regular-season football game in a cricket ground, and honestly, the sheer logistical absurdity of it all deserved a far weirder finish than what we actually witnessed.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=8895\">Live 49ers updates: Australia welcomes NFC West rivalry with Rams for season opener<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Instead, the 49ers went down under and casually turned the Rams inside out.<\/p>\n<p>Depending on your hemisphere or how badly your internal body clock was melted by the International Date Line, the Niners were flying high on Thursday night \u2014 or was it Friday afternoon? Who cares?<\/p>\n<p>Time is a flat circle, jet lag is all too real and the scoreboard at the MCG didn\u2019t care what day of the week it was in California.<\/p>\n<p>San Francisco dismantled Los Angeles with the kind of methodical, physical dominance that usually takes Kyle Shanahan\u2019s squads until mid-November to dial up. They didn\u2019t just beat the Rams; they leaned on them.<\/p>\n<p>Make no mistake: pulling a lopsided division victory out of this fever dream of an opener is massive. In a brutal NFC West race where tiebreakers will inevitably decide who hosts playoff football and who spends January updating their golf handicap, bagging an intra-division \u201croad\u201d win on neutral turf in the Southern Hemisphere is the kind of perfect start you spend a week overseas to obtain.<\/p>\n<p>It was messy in fleeting spots, sure, but the Niners\u2019 win was, mostly, an absolute clinic.<\/p>\n<p>Brock Purdy looked like he was reading the defense in slow motion, Mike Evans gave Niners fans something they haven\u2019t seen since the Harbaugh administration, and the Niners\u2019 defense made Sean McVay look completely out of his depth and the reigning NFL MVP, Matt Stafford, look like Geno Smith.<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Here are the studs and duds from Melbourne, in no particular order:<\/p>\n<h2>\ud83d\udcaa STUDS\ud83d\udcaa<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Kaelon Black, RB<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Led the 49ers in touches in the first half (7 carries for 36 yards), and for good reason. He showed serious pop in the run game, countering an early Rams lead in that department while Christian McCaffrey was kept on ice (only to be unleashed in the second half). Who had a rookie out of Indiana working over a \u201cSuperteam\u201d on their 2026 bingo card? Not Sean McVay.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mike Evans, WR<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Not only did Evans catch the first goal-line fade I\u2019ve seen the Niners complete in a decade of covering the team (this is only slight hyperbole), but he was a monster on third down. Finishing with 6 catches for 49 yards and that ice-breaking score in his San Francisco debut, he delivered exactly what was advertised when he was signed. Kyle Shanahan\u2019s offense putting him in a tighter split gave him de facto slot looks, particularly early, and he cooked on money downs. If his hamstrings and abductors can survive the long flight back, he\u2019s going to be an absolute menace for the Niners.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Deebo Samuel, WR<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes, he had a touchdown and ignited the second half with a tremendous 45-yard kickoff return, but I was most impressed with Samuel\u2019s blocking in this game. As a lead blocker on screens, a crack blocker in the run game \u2014 no matter where Samuel lined up, he was a battering ram. He might not have the twitch to make guys whiff in a phone booth one-on-one anymore, but there\u2019s a reason Kyle Shanahan desperately wanted him back in the fold, and it was on full display Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=8893\">Nearly 100-year-old El Campanil Theatre in Antioch faces sale to church<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Brock Purdy, QB<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>All preseason Brock Purdy looked as if the game was being played back at 0.25 speed around him. Save for one atrocious, head-scratching decision that resulted in a first-half interception, he threw for three touchdowns, scrambled for some big third-downs and operated with total, calm control over everything that surrounded him. That was an MVP-level performance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Connor Colby, OG<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Was he the best 49ers offensive lineman? No. That would have been \u2014 at first glance \u2014 center Jake Brendel. But was Colby \u2014 a somewhat surprising starter on the interior \u2014 the most impressive offensive lineman? Absolutely. I doubt we see him giving that starting guard job back anytime soon after opening some big running lanes in Melbourne.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kyle Juszczyk, FB<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The box score won\u2019t show it, but Juice was exceptional as a lead blocker in this game. Last year\u2019s fun Niners offensive development \u2014 dash motion \u2014 is now standard practice, and no one does it better than the 49ers\u2019 fullback. He\u2019s making the position look like a cheat code in an era where half the league doesn\u2019t even roster one. Fools!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nick Bosa, DE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Niners\u2019 superstar defensive end had a few dozen 11-on-11 reps in the last 11 months, coming off his third ACL reconstruction surgery. That didn\u2019t seem to matter in the least bit against the Rams. He made Matthew Stafford\u2019s life miserable from the opening snap, proving that even a surgically patched-together Bosa is still a terrifying prospect off the edge.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fred Warner, MLB<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes, it\u2019s good to have the best middle linebacker in the NFL back. Warner was a heat-seeking missile, punching out two balls (one of which turned into a critical turnover), nearly picking off another pass, and tackling anything that was royal blue and dared to breathe. So many of the Niners\u2019 defensive sins are completely erased by Warner\u2019s sheer brilliance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jack Jones, CB<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Niners gave the Rams a taste of their own medicine and deployed Jones as a dimeback in this game, and it worked wonders. Jones\u2019 second-quarter pass breakup was a massive, momentum-swinging play that kept L.A. off schedule and off the board. He showed up in a big way again on the Rams\u2019 last-gasp drive to make the game interesting. An excellent, surprising wrinkle from new defensive coordinator Raheem Morris.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Deommodore Lenoir, CB \/ Upton Stout, NB<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That dimeback look doesn\u2019t work unless Lenoir and Upton Stout are able to slide inside and hold their own as de facto linebackers. Stout was an excellent, violent blitzer off the edge, and Lenoir was exceptional as an open-field tackler all game long.<\/p>\n<h2>\ud83d\udcc9DUDS\ud83d\udcc9<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Ji\u2019Ayir Brown, S<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A huge, unnecessary gamble on a deep pass to Puka Nacua in the first half gave the Rams\u2019 offense \u2014 anemic to that point \u2014 instant life and directly handed them their lone touchdown of the game. Brown also chipped in a number of ugly run fills and completely unset edges. If you\u2019re going to freelance like Ed Reed, you probably shouldn\u2019t guess wrong.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CJ West, DT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 49ers desperately needed West to step up as the team\u2019s No. 1 interior run stuffer in this game after Alfred Collins\u2019 injury that has shelved him for the season. That\u2026 did not happen. West was demolished repeatedly against the Rams\u2019 duo-concept runs, leaving gaping freeways in the middle of the defensive line for Kyren Williams and Blake Corum to romp through. The Niners\u2019 coaching staff saw enough and effectively banished him from the interior rotation in the second half.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=8891\">El Ni\u00f1o: Why chances are increasing for lots of rain this winter in the Bay Area and across California<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>San Francisco 49ers 27 &#8211; Los Angeles Rams 7: Brock Purdy operated at MVP speed and Mike Evans dominated third downs as the 49ers bullied Sean McVay\u2019s Rams<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Studs and Duds: Purdy, Bosa and the physical 49ers manhandle Rams in Australia - 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