MELBOURNE, Australia — Flashback a little more than a year ago.
The Rams landed in London the day before their international game.
They handily defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars, 35-7, at Wembley Stadium.
Rams wide receiver Davante Adams caught three touchdown passes in the casually dominant effort.
Why not do it again, Adams said Thursday evening after the Rams’ walkthrough practice session at Marvel Stadium, close to 10 hours after the team landed from its overnight Tuesday flight from Los Angeles – a travel schedule that has been much discussed in the public sphere with the San Francisco 49ers having been in Melbourne since last Friday.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Adams said. “That’s what they say, right?”
“It worked for us last time, so I don’t think anybody could come in and and complain too much about the the schedule when we went out there and handled that convincingly,” he continued. “And I had the hat-trick, so I can’t complain myself, so hopefully we can do that again and I think everybody will be happy.”
Rams head coach Sean McVay, along with quarterback Matthew Stafford, handled the first slew of questions flung their way from the Australian media fewer than 24 hours before their Friday morning opener at 10:35 a.m. (Thursday, 5:35 p.m. PT, Netflix) at Melbourne Cricket Ground in front of an expected 100,000-plus fans.
McVay said the Rams’ 14-hour, 52-minute flight following their Tuesday practice in Woodland Hills went well. They took off just after 10 p.m. on Tuesday in Los Angeles and landed just after 6 a.m. local time on Thursday in Melbourne.
After McVay and Stafford were done at the podium, safety Quentin Lake sat next to linebacker Nate Landman for questions, then center Coleman Shelton and Adams were the last pairing.
Landman said the training staff had the team adjusting their sleep schedules over the past week in order to adapt their minds and bodies to the time difference – 17 hours ahead of Los Angeles – to prepare as if they are still in L.A. for the game.
The goal, Lake said, is that the Rams feel as if they are playing at 5:35 p.m. instead of the 10:35 a.m. kickoff at Melbourne Cricket Ground.
“We’re naturally going to go to sleep a little bit earlier and probably wake up a little bit earlier,” Lake said. “But since the game is so early, our body clock is going to be adjusted in terms of; we’re going to peak at the right time. Coach (McVay) always talks about that as peaking at the right time, and I think the plan and the procedure that we have is giving us the best chance (to peak).”
Earlier Thursday, after landing in Melbourne, the Rams got a feel for the stadium and trotted around the grass of a venue that Shelton said a local told him was “hallowed grounds.”
Stafford said the oval shape of the stadium might create sightline issues for punt and kick return duties, but he didn’t anticipate it giving him any issues on gameday.
“It was really obviously a huge venue,” Stafford said. “I’m glad we got to go out there and kind of just see it, get a feel for the shape of all of the grass out there and then how they’ve kind of put the NFL field in there for us. A bunch of seats in there, so I imagine it’ll be a great environment, nice crowd. We’re looking forward to it.”
INJURY REPORTS
Every player besides recently unretired defensive lineman Aaron Donald – who the team had already said would not travel for the game – was listed as a “full participant” in the estimated injury report.
The 49ers will welcome back two of their biggest stars from significant injuries. The status of defensive end Nick Bosa and tight end George Kittle had been trending in the right direction all week, and their expected returns became official Wednesday night when neither player had a game designation on the team’s final injury report of the week.
Bosa, who has been working his way back from a torn right anterior cruciate ligament suffered in Week 3 last season, and Kittle, who has recovered from a torn right Achilles tendon suffered in January, will be monitored against the Rams but should still play prominent roles. The 49ers listed both players as limited in all three practices this week.