The 49ers don’t get a soft landing to start 2026. They open the season with a divisional heavyweight against the Rams, and because the league wanted this one on a global stage, the game is at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia, not SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
That means San Francisco is making the roughly 7,870-mile trip from Levi’s Stadium to Melbourne for a game that could matter a lot in the NFC West race. The setup is part of the NFL’s broader push to keep spreading the sport overseas, but this one feels especially weighty because it’s an inter-division matchup with real playoff implications attached.
And there’s one more wrinkle: Brock Purdy has been awfully steady when Week 1 rolls around.
The 49ers are 3-0 in season openers with Purdy under center, and none of those wins came by accident. In 2023, San Francisco went to Pittsburgh and controlled the game from the start, building a 20-0 lead before cruising to a 30-7 win. Purdy finished 19-of-29 for 220 yards with two touchdown passes.
A year later, he turned in the exact same completion line - 19-of-29 - in a 32-19 win over the Jets. That time, he didn’t throw a touchdown, but he also didn’t make a mistake. He put up 231 yards without an interception or a fumble, and Jordan Mason powered the offense.
Then came 2025, which was probably Purdy’s roughest opener so far, even though it still ended in a win. He threw two touchdowns and two interceptions against the Seahawks, but when the game got tight late, he delivered.
Trailing by three with three minutes left, he went 5-for-5 on the decisive drive and hit Jake Tonges for the go-ahead score. Nick Bosa finished it off, and the 49ers escaped Seattle 1-0.
Now Purdy gets another division test right out of the gate, and the Rams have already shown they can pile up points against San Francisco.
In two meetings with the 49ers in 2025, Los Angeles averaged 32.5 points. That’s well above what San Francisco allowed overall last season, when the defense gave up 21.8 points per game. The 49ers were 13th in the league in yards allowed and 13th in points allowed, but the Rams still found ways to stress them.
The first matchup was a narrow one, with San Francisco hanging on for a 26-23 overtime win. Los Angeles had four drives end in plus territory without points, thanks to two fumbles, a missed field goal, and a turnover on downs.
The second meeting was a different story entirely. The Rams scored touchdowns on their first three drives across the first and second halves and rolled to a 42-26 win, the most points the 49ers allowed all season.
There’s more change on San Francisco’s side this time around, too. The 49ers were without Nick Bosa and Fred Warner in both games last season, and the defense now has a different look with the additions of Osa Odighizuwa and Raheem Morris. Even so, the Rams offense remains one of the league’s toughest problems, which makes Thursday night an immediate test for Morris in his San Francisco debut.
In Other News...
49ers Suddenly Have A DeZhaun Stribling Problem They Feared
DeZhaun Striblings first regular-season game with the 49ers turned into a worrying one in Melbourne, where the rookie receiver had to survive not one but two injury scares during the season opener. First came an apparent ankle issue, and later he was forced off the field on a cart, leaving San Francisco to wait on clarity while the game carried on around him.
The lack of an official diagnosis only added to the unease for a player who had flashed promise throughout the preseason and looked like someone the 49ers could count on for more than just depth. Some early reports pointed to a hamstring problem, but the real concern is simpler than the label right now - whether a promising opening act has already been interrupted before it ever really got going. [Read more 🡒]
49ers Fans Caught A Wild Live TV Mix-Up During Injury Update
A bizarre live-TV mix-up briefly sent 49ers fans down the wrong path during an injury update, and the real story behind the name was far stranger than any on-field setback. Daejon Love was taken into custody by the FBI in connection with a multi-year scam that used fake banking apps and staged FaceTime calls to fool victims, with an accomplice, Taylor Jamie Chan, posing as his financial advisor.
Love was arrested while wearing San Francisco 49ers gear, adding an odd twist to a case that had nothing to do with football but still landed squarely in the teams orbit. Law enforcement says the scheme has now been shut down, ending a fraud operation that had been built around deception and false trust rather than anything happening on the field. [Read more 🡒]
Rams Fans Face An Unusual Week 1 Problem Against The 49ers
Rams fans heading into Week 1 have a little more than the usual trip planning to figure out before facing the 49ers. The 2026 season opener is set for Thursday Night Football in Melbourne, Australia, and the game will stream exclusively on Netflix, giving the matchup a very different feel from the standard prime-time NFL telecast.
For Netflix, it is the first time the service will carry a Thursday Night Football game outside of Christmas Day after its renewed deal with the league. Pregame coverage is set for 6:30 p.m. ET, with Noah Eagle and Luke Kuechly on the broadcast team, so anyone hoping to catch San Francisco and Los Angeles in the opener will need to find the app before they find the couch. [Read more 🡒]