The San Francisco 49ers traveled down state on Sunday to take on their NFC West rivals, the Los Angeles Rams. The scene at SoFi stadium though made it look like a home game for the 49ers. A picture shown on the Fox broadcast during the game showed the stands dominated by fans in red and gold gear.
Nah man this crazy ???.
Idk what the other half of the stadium look like, but this video from the broadcast is at least 90% #49ers fans pic.twitter.com/WoEz6LPXwV
— Nick Newman (@NinerNick_22) September 17, 2023
Since leaving St. Louis, fans have criticized the Rams for their lack of support in Los Angeles. The fanbase's chant of 'Who's house? Rams house!' has become somewhat of an ironic statement when the team consistently fails to draw a crowd where a majority of fans are Rams fans. The divisional matchup on Sunday sounded and felt like much more of a home game for the 49ers.
In the third quarter when a San Francisco defensive back intercepted Matthew Stafford, instead of the crowd going silent like most would expect when the home team has a bad play, there were loud cheers from the crowd.
ONE HANDED PICK! ? @_isaiah_oliver_ with a beautiful INT for the @49ers
?: #SFvsLAR on FOX
?: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/FhXtx7w3wW pic.twitter.com/7YlBecfyTy— NFL (@NFL) September 17, 2023
Despite not having the support from the crowd that most teams at their home stadium can expect, the Rams 2023 season has started off much better than most expected. After a 5-12 record in 2022, the Rams convincingly beat the Seattle Seahawks 30-13 in their first game of the season. The Rams came in as 7.5-point underdogs against the 49ers but scored 17 in the first three quarters. In the two matchups against the 49ers last year, the Rams only scored 14 and 9 points.
The 2023 Rams might be one of the most unpredictable teams in the NFL this season. Their initial 53-man roster included a shocking 36 rookie players. The most impressive rookie for Los Angeles thus far has been wide receiver Puka Nacua. The fifth-round draft pick out of BYU had 119 receiving yards on 10 receptions in his NFL debut against Seattle and broke the record for the most receptions in a player's first two NFL games with 20 catches.
The Rams should hope that their promising start to the season will lead to more actual Rams fans buying tickets instead of them going to opponents' fans.
