Penrith Panthers coach Ivan Cleary said his team beat themselves in Sunday's 34-24 loss to the Canberra Raiders at Pepper Stadium.
The two sides went try for try for most of the game, and were locked at 24-all with 15 minutes remaining.
A try to Jordan Rapana then put the Raiders in front and they put the nail in the coffin thanks to some Edrick Lee brilliance with five minutes left.
Cleary described the game as a bit of a "you score, we score" thing in his post-match press conference.
"I thought we beat ourselves today, you know we made far too many mistakes," he said.
"I think they ended up with 10 extra sets completed than we did and that's going to hurt you in any game, but especially a side like Canberra, a pretty decent attacking side, we certainly didn't help ourselves in that regard."
Uncharacteristic mistakes at crucial moments in the game did the Panthers no favours either.
"When it went to 24-all and Dean Whare dropped the ball cold, of all people, Dean's probably got the best hands in our team," Cleary said.
"Again we looked like doing something and then they scored on the set following, I think that probably summed it up a bit."
Panthers skipper Peter Wallace was asked if it was a better result than last week's 52-10 drubbing by Melbourne.
Wallace saw the funny side, noting it was a lot closer, but echoed the thoughts of his coach when summing up the game.
"I think Ivan knocked it on the head, we definitely beat ourselves," Wallace said.
"Some very soft tries that shouldn't happen.
"The start of the game was really good, I thought we were going to be in for a good day actually.
"But then two soft tries, their first two and it went from there."
The loss to the Raiders was the Panthers' third on the trot and it has seen them slump to 13th spot on the ladder.
The Panthers now play South Sydney at ANZ Stadium on Sunday at 4pm.
It is just four weeks since the two last met and the Panthers will aim to rediscover the form that saw them upset the defending premiers 20-6 in round 17.