Newcastle Knights head coach Adam O'Brien has revealed his side is skipping the fundamentals in pursuit of a drought-breaking victory.
Travelling to Townsville on Sunday afternoon, looking to break a run of five straight losses, Newcastle made 16 errors and managed just four points in the 34-point beatdown at the hands of the Cowboys.
The biggest problem for Newcastle was that their opposition wasn't exactly performing strongly either, dropping the ball a staggering 23 times.
Despite that, the hosts, who also spent 10 minutes with Reece Robson in the sin bin during the first half, managed a six tries-to-one rout of the Newcastle side, who are only two points clear of the Gold Coast Titans at the bottom of the ladder and still in danger of taking home the dreaded wooden spoon.
O'Brien said his side is lacking confidence, and it shows.
"It's what we spoke about in there. We lack some confidence, we lack not so much belief, but you get to a point when you're having the season that you're having where you train yourself into some confidence, but when you bomb a few tries, our confidence and belief is eroding quickly," the under-pressure head coach said..
"It wasn't that long ago when similar personnel were out that we pushed top-four teams, but our last two performances, we want a win so badly that we skip to that."
The only positive O'Brien could muster from the game was a lack of injuries, with the Knights now having to pick themselves up from the canvas ahead of a run home which will see them host the Brisbane Broncos, travel to the Shire to play the Cronulla Sharks, and then hit the road again for a final round match with the similarly battling Parramatta Eels.
Captain Dane Gagai said there were simply no excuses for his side, who went into halftime 20-0 down.
"There were no excuses for our completion rate in the first half," Gagai said.
"I don't think we lack the ability to create opportunities, but I guess it's just a bit of detail and a few fundamental things on the back of it. I think we bombed four tries, and sometimes when you find yourself in these positions, you kind of get a bit caught up and things tend to go the wrong way."
