Deebo Samuel eats his words after complaining about lack of involvement

The San Francisco 49ers couldn't overcome the rain and a stout Los Angeles Rams defense on Thursday Night Football, losing 12-6 in their home stadium. San Francisco drops two games below .500 as its season from hell continues. The Rams, meanwhile, move within a half-game of the first place Seattle Seahawks in a hotly contested NFC West.

This was an especially rough performance for San Francisco. Thursday nights are always tough — this isn't the first TNF rock fight — but this was not a fatigue issue. The Niners' offense just looks completely out of whack, in large part due to the playmaking void around Brock Purdy.

We are used to watching Purdy spread the wealth between multiple Pro Bowl pass-catchers in Kyle Shanahan's dynamic scheme. That has just not been possible this season due to the volume of injuries to the Niners' offense. Brandon Aiyuk and Christian McCaffrey are done for the season. Jordan Mason wasn't on the field in Week 15 either.

We saw a decent George Kittle performance on Thursday night, but the Niners' lone established wide receiver — the indomitable Deebo Samuel — laid an embarrassing egg. Samuel's production has been in decline all season, but this was a new low. He reeled in just three of seven targets for 16 yards and dropped a third-down pass that could've swung the game in San Francisco's favor.

To make things worse, Samuel took to social media earlier this week to proclaim that his "struggles" aren't struggles at all, but a byproduct of San Francisco not feeding him the ball enough. That did not prove correct.

Deebo Samuel complains about not getting the ball enough — and then does nothing on TNF

This was a mesmerizingly bad performance from Samuel. It wasn't just the drop. Purdy tried to force-feed Samuel in an effort to both placate the wideout and spark a stagnant offense. Ironically, the insistence on feeding Samuel ended up hurting the Niners, who maybe should've turned elsewhere.

To be fair, options were limited, and Samuel wasn't the only Niners wideout on the struggle bus. Jauan Jennings, for example, reeled in two catches for 31 yards — on nine targets. Ricky Pearsall caught one of four. Even the productive Kittle only managed a catch on four of seven targets.

So, it was a rough night all around, and plenty of blame can be placed on Purdy's doorstep. In the end, though, nobody comes out of this game looking worse than Samuel. It's all his fault, too. There's a difference between a bad game and bad optics. He didn't need to tweet that out. He didn't need to tell the world that no, it's actually not his fault. But he did, and now he has to eat those words after a rotten performance that was, unambiguously, his fault.

Samuel is, in fact, struggling.

The 28-year-old wideout now has 43 catches and 569 yards through 13 appearances. He has one receiving touchdown on the season and is posting a career-low receiving success rate (39.1 percent). His 46.1 receiving yards per game also marks a career low.