Even when the 49ers don’t believe in themselves, they can believe in the Rams.
They can count on Rams coach Sean McVay to be drunk on Chunky soup and make baffling decisions that he would never even consider in other games.
They can count on the Rams’ offense to be one-dimensional and bland — even when they enter the game buzzing.
They can count on the Rams’ defense to make mistake after mistake, despite the Niners rarely exerting the kind of pressure that usually elicits those mistakes.
And then, the Niners can count on the Rams to fight with each other on the sideline about all of those failures.
“I was kind of surprised when they gave up a little early,” 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa said after the Niners’ 31-14 win Sunday.
I don’t see why that would be surprising, Nick. It’s what the Rams do against the 49ers.
The 49ers and Rams might be seen as one of the best rivalries in football today, but it’s a rivalry the way that siblings are rivals. And in this scenario, the 49ers are the significantly older brother.
The Rams can harbor as much resentment as they want, but the results remain the same.
If not for the Rams’ win over the 49ers in the teams’ NFC Championship Game matchup last season, the lopsided nature of this “rivalry” would be better known.
It’s ownage — no, domination — pure and simple.
Division games aren’t supposed to be this way. The 49ers and Rams play two times every regular season. That familiarity is supposed to breed competition. It does elsewhere in the league.
But for the last four seasons, the 49ers have won both regular-season games — home and away.
Or, more accurately, home and vacation home. Red is a bold color — it’s obvious when more than half of the fans in the stands of the Rams’ incredible SoFi Stadium are wearing it. The lopsidedness of the crowd is even more obvious when the Rams are overtly running a silent count for a game in which they are, technically, the hosts.
It’s all a bit strange. It’s certainly not fully explicable. If a voodoo doll were in play here, it would make sense to me.
How else can you explain Aaron Donald — the best interior pass rusher in the NFL, and perhaps in the game’s history — having one sack in three years against the Niners?
The only reason this can be considered a rivalry is that it goes beyond the football field.
McVay is an old Shanahan acolyte. Television media eats up stuff like that.
Then there’s the whole “Battle for California” angle — as if the Rams have any claim to an inch of this state. (The Niners are the most popular team in the state, followed by Nevada’s NFL team, the Raiders.)
But the thing that binds these two teams the most is that they are both all-in on winning.
What a concept.
Draft picks? Who needs them? The Rams and Niners are keeping up with the Joneses. No, not Jerry in Dallas. Each other.
The battles for top players are legendary. The Rams poached Matt Stafford from right under Kyle Shanahan’s nose. The Niners countered that quarterback move by moving three first-round picks to draft Trey Lance.
And this year, with Lance injured and Stafford struggling, both teams went all-in on trading for running back Christian McCaffrey. The Niners won, and on Sunday, McCaffrey won the game.
Every year is the year for these teams, at least when it comes to the Super Bowl.
But when it comes to this rivalry, every year remains the Niners’.
Soruce : https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/10/31/kurtenbach-you-cant-count-on-the-49ers-for-much-but-theyll-always-beat-the-rams/