Previews

Week 1 preview: 49ers at Rams

San Francisco 49ers travel to Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, VIC for the opening week of the 2026 season, kick-off Friday 11 September at 00:35 UTC, live on Netflix.

San Francisco 49ers finished the 2025 season 12-5 and took the 6th seed in the NFC. Los Angeles Rams finished 12-5 and took the 5th seed.

The opening line has it at LAR -3.5 with a total of 48.5, which tells you the market is treating this as a home-field game rather than a mismatch.

Watch the hash marks. Formation into the boundary changed the leverage on the outside receivers and the safety help never rotated in time, which is how a good secondary gives up a bad afternoon.

Sean McVay is in charge on the home sideline, with Kyle Shanahan opposite him. Week one form is famously unreliable, but the openers still set the tone for a division race that runs to January.

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