Shanahan, McVay brush off travel plans as factor in Niners' win over Rams - ESPN

MELBOURNE, Australia — In the moments after his team's 27-7 victory over the Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan already knew one of the questions coming his way.

Sure enough, seven questions into his postgame news conference at Melbourne Cricket Ground, a reporter asked Shanahan whether the Niners' plans to travel to Melbourne a week in advance gave his team an advantage against the Rams, who arrived Thursday, played Friday and headed out after the game.

«Win or lose, I know everybody was going to make a big deal about that for either team,» Shanahan said. «You never know how much that factors into it. You just try to do the best to prepare for 3½ hours. I liked how we prepared, but more importantly, I liked how we played.»

Rams coach Sean McVay echoed that sentiment.

«I don't believe that that's why we didn't play well enough,» McVay said. «I really don't.… I'll always make decisions that I think are best for the football team. It's easy in hindsight to be able to say it was a miss, but those are responsibilities that I'll take.»

Though neither coach wanted to make the league's first regular-season game in Australia a referendum on travel plans, the 49ers' victory provided a useful data point for future teams having to make 15-plus hour flights to play a game.

After a sloppy first half for both sides, the Niners rattled off 17 straight points to hand the Rams their worst loss since Week 2 in 2024. The Rams are the first preseason Super Bowl favorite in the past 50 years to lose their season opener by 20 points or more.

In Raheem Morris' first game as 49ers defensive coordinator, the Niners' defense held the Rams to their lowest scoring output in a game they've had Matthew Stafford at quarterback.