The Los Angeles Rams will try for their fourth straight win over the San Francisco 49ers when the NFC West foes meet on Thursday night. The Rams rallied for a 27-20 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday on Tutu Atwell’s 88-yard touchdown catch. The injury-riddled 49ers are coming off their first loss of the season, a 26-21 defeat to the Jacksonville Jaguars, and will be without key offensive players Brock Purdy, Ricky Pearsall and Jauan Jennings on a short week.
Story
San Francisco (3-1) at Los Angeles Rams (3-1)
Thursday, 8:15 p.m. EDT, Prime Video
BetMGM NFL Odds: Rams by 7
Against the spread: 49ers 2-2; Rams 3-1
Series record: 49ers lead 78-71-3.
Last meeting: Rams beat 49ers 12-6 in Santa Clara, California on Dec. 12, 2024.
Last week: 49ers lost to Jaguars 26-21; Rams beat Colts 27-20.
49ers offense: overall (5), rush (28), pass (2), scoring (23).
49ers defense: overall (T-5), rush (17), pass (6), scoring (7).
Rams offense: overall (4), rush (13), pass (3), scoring (13).
Rams defense: overall (9), rush (10), pass (T-9), scoring (T-10).
Turnover differential: 49ers minus-5; Rams plus-3.
49ers player to watch
RB Christian McCaffrey. McCaffrey had 92 yards receiving last week for his most since joining the Niners. He is one of four players in the league with at least 100 yards from scrimmage in every game this season. The only 49ers players to do it in each of the first five games in a season are Roger Craig (1988) and Paul Hofer (1980).
Rams player to watch
WR Puka Nacua had 13 receptions for a career-high 170 yards and a touchdown against the Colts, his third game this season with at least 10 receptions and 100 yards. Nacua leads the league in receptions (42) and yards receiving (503), and he has at least 118 yards from scrimmage in each of the first four games. In three games against San Francisco, he has 26 receptions for 285 yards and one touchdown.
Key matchup
Rams QB Matthew Stafford vs. 49ers defense. When the 37-year-old Stafford gets in a rhythm, as he did in a two-minute drill at the end of the first half or on the game-tying touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, there might not be a better passer in football. That is why San Francisco will need big efforts from its pass rush and secondary to disrupt Stafford’s timing with Nacua and Davante Adams. The 49ers have five sacks through four games and failed to sack the Jaguars’ Trevor Lawrence on Sunday, while the defensive backs held Jacksonville to a single pass play of more than 20 yards.
Key injuries
49ers: QB Brock Purdy will miss the game with a sore toe. Purdy missed two games because of the injury before returning last week but had soreness after the game. Mac Jones will start in his place. … WR Ricky Pearsall (knee) and WR Jauan Jennings (ribs, ankle) also are out this week for San Francisco.
Rams: LG Steve Avila (ankle) was active but didn’t play against Indianapolis. Whether he is healthy enough to regain his spot in the starting lineup this week isn’t clear. … RT Rob Havenstein (ankle) and TE Tyler Higbee (hip) have not practiced this week and are listed as doubtful for the game.
Series notes
The Rams have won three straight over their Bay Area rivals following a nine-game regular-season losing streak. … Each of those three Los Angeles wins have been by six points or fewer. … San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan is 10-7 against his friend and former colleague Sean McVay.
Stats and stuff
San Francisco has won two division games to open this season after going 1-5 vs. the NFC West last season. … The 49ers have held opponents to a 32% conversion rate on third down for the second-best mark in the NFL. … San Francisco has no TD runs through four games for the first time since 1990. … The 49ers have tied an NFL record set last season by the Giants by going 11 straight games without intercepting a pass. … The 49ers have been outrushed by 27.5 yards per game, their worst mark through four games since 2010 when they were minus-29.3. … San Francisco had no sacks and no QB hits last week for the first time since Week 2 of the 2015 season. … LB Fred Warner had his 17th career forced fumble last week for the most by a Niners player since at least 1994. … The Rams have allowed 86 and 85 yards rushing in their past two games. They most recently held three straight opponents under 100 yards in Week 11-13 of the 2023 season. … Stafford needs 11 completions to pass Philip Rivers (5,277) for eight in NFL history for completions. … Nacua has 42 receptions and is tied with Cooper Kupp and Michael Thomas for most through four games in league history. … Los Angeles has scored eight touchdowns in 16 red zone drives, including five touchdowns in nine goal-to-go situations (55.6%). … OLB Byron Young has at least one sack in each game this season, and his five total sacks is tied with the Giants’ Brian Burns for the league lead.
Fantasy tip
The distribution of touches between Rams RB Kyren Williams (13 carries, three receptions) and Blake Corum (nine carries, two receptions) versus the Colts might have given fantasy owners pause. Williams was much more effective, finishing with 94 yards from scrimmage, and the game plan may not be so pass heavy every week, so it’s not worth worrying about going forward.
___
Longtime friends Puka Nacua, Fred Warner ready to clash again when Rams host 49ers
INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Fred Warner has embodied the San Francisco 49ers and their hard-hitting defensive style to Puka Nacua for the Rams receiver’s entire adult life.
That’s because Nacua was still in high school when he first got to know Warner, who played three seasons at BYU alongside Kai Nacua — the older brother of Los Angeles’ star wideout — before he joined the Niners to begin a career that’s now in its eighth season.
With the latest edition of this lively California rivalry kicking off Thursday night, Nacua knows he might have to take some punishment from the four-time All-Pro linebacker to keep the Rams (3-1) on their hot start.
The NFL’s leading receiver welcomes the challenge and the competition whenever he faces Warner and the 49ers (3-1).
“For me, it takes me back home,” Nacua said with a grin. “I remember watching young Fred Warner out there playing with my older brother and being like, ‘Hey, I know that guy. That’s the guy I’ve seen in the locker room.’ Those are some of the moments that immediately (come to mind) with the Rams-49ers, and now some of those moments where I’ve been at the bottom of the pile and Fred Warner was like, ‘Yeah, Puk.’ It’s just competitive.”
Warner has nothing but praise for his former teammate’s kid brother, lauding Nacua’s blocking acumen and his trademark eagerness to seek out and even initiate contact.
Warner even gave advice to Nacua before the 2023 draft, in which Nacua famously went to the Rams with the final pick of the fifth round as the 20th receiver chosen. Warner expected Nacua to be an NFL player, but he acknowledges that “nobody could have seen this type of success that he’s seen. Only he knows that.”
“A big part of it as a young player is having the confidence of knowing that you belong,” Warner added. “I think that’s really just the start of it all. Because just speaking from experience, when I came in, it was so overwhelming playing against guys that I’d watched on TV for so long and it’s like, ‘Do I really belong?’ For him, I think from Day One, he was out there and had back-to-back to back games with 10-plus receptions and was a guy that Matt Stafford could rely on. That spoke to his preparation level … and he’s continued to obviously stay humble and find ways to get better in his game.”
Prolific Puka
Nacua tops the NFL after making 42 receptions for 503 yards in the Rams’ first four games, including a late TD catch in the Rams’ 27-20 comeback victory over Indianapolis last week. Nacua had 13 catches for a career-high 170 yards.
Nacua came to national attention in his first meeting with the 49ers two years ago, when he caught an NFL rookie-record 15 passes for 147 yards in his second career game. The Niners somewhat limited Nacua in their most recent matchup, holding him to a mere eight catches for 97 yards last December — but one of those was a 51-yard reception to set up the go-ahead field goal in the Rams’ 12-6 win.
Banged-up 49ers offense
The 49ers will be without several key offensive players for the game with quarterback Brock Purdy ruled out with a toe injury. Purdy was sidelined for two games earlier this season before returning last week. But he came out of that game with soreness in his toe and wasn’t able to recover quickly enough on a short week. Mac Jones will start in his place after leading the team to wins against New Orleans and Arizona earlier this season.
San Francisco will also be without its top two receivers with Ricky Pearsall out with a knee injury and Jauan Jennings out with injuries to his ribs and ankle. Tight end George Kittle is already on injured reserve with a hamstring injury.
Tide finally turning?
Los Angeles has won three straight over San Francisco for the first time in the concurrent careers of Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan. Although the first of those victories was a late-season meeting of backups, the Rams have finally made some progress in this rivalry series after the Niners won nine of 10 from 2019 to 2023, losing only in a thrilling NFC championship game in January 2022.
Missing Bosa
The first game without injured defensive end Nick Bosa didn’t go well for the 49ers. They generated just five quarterback pressures with no sacks and no QB hits last week against the Jaguars. That marked the first time they had no sacks or QB hits in a game since Week 2 of the 2015 season, according to Pro Football Focus. San Francisco also allowed 151 yards rushing.
49ers struggle on the ground
San Francisco has traditionally relied on the run game under Shanahan, but Christian McCaffrey has struggled to get going this season. The Niners rank second worst while averaging only 3.3 yards per carry, are the only team without a TD run, and are one of four teams without a run of at least 20 yards.
“Sometimes you are just one guy off, or sometimes you’re an arm tackle away from breaking a couple long ones and all of a sudden you have big games,” said McCaffrey, who is averaging just 56.3 yards rushing per game. “You just don’t know when that’s going to happen.”
___