They may have defeated the reigning premiers a week ago but the Penrith Panthers had no answers for the Sydney Roosters, who dismantled the mountain men 24-4 thanks to the huge influence of the Tricolours' right edge and their returning Origin stars.
Roosters' right edge becoming lethal
Shaun Kenny-Dowall, Blake Ferguson and Mitchell Aubusson are becoming quite the destructive trio for the Roosters.
While winger Kenny-Dowall scored twice against Penrith on Saturday, Ferguson and Aubusson were easily the best two on the paddock and it showed on the scoreboard with all four Roosters tries coming to the right of the uprights.
Roosters captain Jake Friend said it was Ferguson's best performance for the club.
"It's good to see him go after a few things," Friend said post-game. "He got up in the air for those couple of kicks and he had some good touches. He's been building for the last few weeks."
The Panthers looked flat
After putting a ton of energy into last week's victory over South Sydney, the Panthers had absolutely nothing when push came to shove against the Roosters.
Falling to their fourth loss at Pepper Stadium this season, Panthers captain Peter Wallace admitted his side couldn't contain the Roosters' outside backs or fullback Roger Tuivasa-Sheck.
"It just felt like we were on the back foot the whole night," Wallace said. "Their back three were able to get a sniff early and got them off to a really good start. Ferguson, Kenny-Dowall and Tuivasa-Sheck were all good."
Devastated Blues bounce back for Tricolours
It's been 72 hours since the NSW Blues' record State of Origin loss, and while the Roosters' representative trio would've been devastated by Wednesday's proceedings they were able to bounce back in the best way possible against Penrith.
Mitchell Pearce, Boyd Cordner and Michael Jennings did their club prospects no harm, earning compliments from Roosters coach Trent Robinson.
"[The rest of] our team was the ones who were able to get around them," Robinson said of the return of the Origin stars. "They decided they were going to play for them out there and they did. So that's a really good attitude from our guys there."
The mountain men tried too hard
Offloads that weren't needed to be thrown, penalties which could've been avoided and errors which shouldn't have been conceded – the Panthers dug themselves into a hole and couldn't fight themselves out of it from the get-go.
Missing 42 tackles in the match, the Panthers made it hard for themselves in the initial stages and panicked when the game was getting away from them.
After his string of recent starring performances, Bryce Cartwright was one of the Penrith's guiltiest when it came to errors on Saturday night.
Roosters entrenched in the top four
Going four points clear of the fourth-placed Dragons, the Roosters consolidated their position as one of the competition's elite following their fourth straight victory.
They haven't reached any great heights over the last month but the fact the 2013 premiers continue to win is only likely to spell bad news for the rest of the competition in the coming weeks.
"We've had our bye. We had a rest. It was going to be a tough game coming out here. Penrith have been playing good footy. And we played well," coach Robinson said.
"There was some stuff we did well, and then there were areas where we can improve on. I thought the whole attitude of the game was right though."
