49ers vs. Rams prediction: NFL Week 1 picks, odds, best bets

Crikey! Football is back, and it’s 7,900 miles away.The NFL will play its farthest international game to date Thursday in Melbourne, Australia, where the Rams and 49ers will both set out with big expectations. Los Angeles returns mostly the same roster that took it to an NFC Championship plus two-time Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett and a freshly unretired Aaron Donald, who won the award three times. They’re the juggernaut of the NFL, opening the season with 5/1 odds to win the Super Bowl. San Francisco, priced at 17/1, remains among the NFC’s elite following their fifth 10-win season since 2019.The 49ers certainly don’t lack the star power between Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle and Nick Bosa, but they are starting to knock on Father Time’s door. The Rams, who will take to Melbourne Cricket Ground as 3.5-point favorites, elected to arrive 28 hours before kickoff while the 49ers have been settling into the 17-hour time zone difference for a week. The hot topic is whether Sean McVay’s decision to minimize disruption to the Rams’ normal routine will ultimately prove pernicious to his players.

He’s the franchise’s all-time winningest head coach and the only coach to have gone 3-0 both SU and ATS in international games, having covered the spread by an average of 19 points per game. While this looks like an advantage for San Francisco, scientific researchers say it takes 17 days for your circadian rhythm to adjust.So let’s set aside conjectures about the physical readiness of NFL athletes and focus on the teams. The other public concern is that Donald will not be playing while he continues working up to game speed.

Did we forget that — aside from acquiring Garrett, who just set the single-season sack record at 23 — the Rams upgraded their defense by signing Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson? The pair of star cornerbacks can only improve a secondary that gave Sam Darnold 355 yards in its last appearance. A grizzled Mike Eva...