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The consensus coming into the 2026 season had the Los Angeles Rams as a superteam and Super Bowl favorites.
Week 1 in Melbourne supplied the counter-argument: a 27-7 loss to the San Francisco 49ers at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the NFL's first-ever game in Australia.
Before the overreaction takes hold, the more specific question is whether arriving in Melbourne 28 hours before kickoff is what undid a team that has not yet played its full hand.
The preparation split The 49ers spent close to a week in Australia before the game, consulting sleep experts and running multiple practices in local time.
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