A disgusted Anthony Griffin was at a loss to explain the Panthers' 28-24 defeat to the Titans and said Tyrone Peachey's brain snap in the dying minutes summed up the game for his side.
The Panthers coach gave full credit to the Titans for handing his players a lesson in persistence but said his own team was largely to blame for letting victory slip through their fingers.
Peachey's brain snap came in the final three minutes of the game when a Panthers backline shift in the Titans' 20 ended when the makeshift centre dropped the ball cold.
Making matters worse, Peachey – instead of falling on the ball and wrapping it up – grounded it as if he were in the in-goal. His carelessness allowed Ashley Taylor to pick up the scraps and race downfield.
One tackle later Anthony Don stole the win in the corner for the Titans, Neil Henry's men hitting the lead for the first time in the game right there and then.
"[Peachey's error] was just a sign of our whole game. It's not what we have been about so far this year," Griffin said.
"Full credit to the opposition – they hung in there really well and came over the top of us in the end. We got what we deserved I thought."
Penrith hit the lead on four separate occasions in what was their first game back at Pepper Stadium since Round 6, only for the Titans to draw level each time before eventually coming away with the two competition points.
"We had enough possession and enough points to win the game but the tries came far too easy at the other end," Griffin said.
"The way they got their tries, our defence was very loose and something that eventually was going to cost us.
"We kept going away from being patient and direct in attack. We had a couple of problems there but at the end of the day 24 points is enough to win the game."
With Peachey, Bryce Cartwright, Matt Moylan, Trent Merrin and Josh Mansour all in the discussion for State of Origin call-ups, Griffin said he didn't care to talk about how the speculation influenced Penrith's four-point loss.
"I don't care about representative footy. I care about Penrith and our team, we weren't anywhere near our best and I'm disappointed we came up with that performance," Griffin said. "We let ourselves down and we let our members and fans down."
