Roosters coach Trent Robinson was left disappointed in his side's inability to perform for the full 80 minutes after the Tricolours were outclassed 32-20 by the Canterbury Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon.
The blue and whites raced out to an 18-0 lead before the Roosters fought back with two tries just before half-time, before rallying again after the break to seal a deserved 12-point victory.
Robinson bemoaned his side's disastrous start to the game that saw Aidan Guerra bundled into touch from the opening play of the game, Daniel Tupou spill a line dropout and Latrell Mitchell sent to the sin bin for a professional foul all inside the opening half hour.
The Roosters completed just 53 per cent of their sets in the first half and finished the game with 12 errors to effectively hand the Bulldogs the two competition points on a silver platter.
Robinson said the start to the game was "obviously disappointing" but was proud of the way his troops defended their line with 12 men to stay in touch after half an hour.
"If you're relying on someone going into touch from the first kick-off as how your game's going to go then you're a fragile team," Robinson said.
"I thought we defended well during that period. I think it was 6-0 at that time and we sort of held on almost for that whole 10-minute period and then the two tries at the back end to go 18-0 down.
"It's cost us again this week…errors and putting pressure on ourselves and then some really good footy to come back to 18-10 at half-time. But that was the story of the game.
"They go and kick two points and then get another try and then we claw our way back a little bit. You've just got to put together a full 80 of controlling your possession and putting pressure on. It was far from that tonight.
"We had many opportunities to get it back on track but we didn't until it was 18-0."
There were positive signs as the Roosters produced more offloads, made the same number of line breaks and missed fewer tackles on Sunday.
The Tricolours even had their chances to get back in the contest in the second half but either came up with errors or the wrong option in attack to halt any chance of victory.
That inability to maintain pressure was the thing that frustrated Robinson the most, with the Roosters coach admitting that inconsistency was the thing that was separating his side from the premier teams in the NRL.
"We see it each week that the top teams are putting together complete performances," he continued.
"I think Cronulla were a bit out of sorts yesterday but they just held on long enough and then went and finished it off when it came time. They hold it through the tough periods and finish it off during the good periods.
"The teams at the top are doing that. The teams that are at the bottom like us are riding the wave of good and bad periods, and in the bad periods we're letting tries in."
The three-time defending minor premiers might be languishing in 15th place on the ladder after 11 rounds, but Robinson said the mood around the club was still upbeat.
While the emotional side of things might be on track, Robinson admitted it was time for the players to start delivering on field.
"Every week we go into it feeling like we're going to have a good day and we're positive and we're tight. Obviously moments like this we're really down. It hurts, it hurts a lot," he said.
"It's getting away from us but we're 11 games in and we've got to find something. We pride ourselves on the way that we play and we're not living up to that at the moment. The club and the team are fine, but we've got to get some results."
