49ers crash Rams coronation, rewrite NFC West script

The Rams and 49ers traveled halfway around the world to remind everyone about the thin line they walk in the NFC West.The Rams arrived in Australia carrying Super Bowl expectations and a roster seemingly assembled to make those expectations reasonable.The 49ers arrived with enough questions to fill a cargo ship.Then they played.By the time the 49ers finished dismantling the Rams — and the assumptions that accompanied them to Australia — the division looked far less willing to cooperate with Los Angeles’ championship plans.Meanwhile, the 49ers boarded their flight home with answers to some of their biggest questions and every reason to set their sights higher.That does not mean September has delivered its verdict on January.

But Thursday offered a useful correction to the idea that the NFC West would serve as the Rams’ launching pad to something bigger.They still have to win the neighborhood.And the neighbors remain a pain in their backside.The 49ers spent much of the buildup looking like a team whose circumstances might swallow its potential.Injuries, disruptions and uncertainty created an easy temptation to discuss everything working against them while overlooking what still works for them.Kyle Shanahan can still construct an offense that makes a defense defend the entire field.

Brock Purdy can still operate it with the confidence and precision necessary to turn a difficult assignment into someone else’s difficult day.And the 49ers still know the Rams well enough to be unimpressed by the names on their roster.That familiarity matters over a season.The 49ers do not need to match every Rams acquisition with a splash of their own.San Francisco needs to block, tackle, execute and force the Rams to play through the frustration of having their preferred answers taken away.Thursday was a reminder that those qualities travel, too.More significantly, the 49ers demonstrated that their problems do not automatically define their ceiling.

A team can enter the seaso...