Dragons interim coach Dean Young called out "individuals not getting their jobs done" as the key reason for Sunday's 23-22 golden-point loss to the Cowboys in Townsville.
North Queensland fullback Valentine Holmes drilled the winning field goal in the 84th minute, but Young said it was yet another case of St George Illawarra beating themselves with mistakes.
They failed to ice several try-scoring chances, while Zac Lomax missed a rushed field goal shot at the death and Corey Norman pushed an attempt wide in the side's only extra-time opportunity.
It followed last round's 14-10 defeat to the Titans.
"Same s--t, different day," Young said to sum up the performance.
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"For the second week in a row, the game was there to be won in the last five minutes which is what this club wants to be about. We want to be fighting for the full 80 minutes, right to the death.
"But this club deserves to win as well. There's individuals not getting their jobs done - and that's what's costing this team.
"We're doing some good things and we invite them into the game with fundamental errors or even fundamental movements in defence.
Match Highlights: Cowboys v Dragons
"Blokes going sideways off the line and giving up their inside shoulders - stuff that we work really, really hard on and when the pressure's on, we're not nailing it at the moment.
"The boys spoke about it next door [in the sheds] that we lost, they didn't win. And that's no disrespect to the Cows, but they felt like they let themselves down."
Young said he wasn't disappointed with five-eighth Norman's decision to forgo a field goal shot and pass to Lomax in the 79th minute.
Holmes! Sweet Holmes!
But the interim mentor thought Norman was perhaps a bit hasty in taking a snap in golden point from 40 metres out.
The resultant 20-metre restart and seven-tackle set allowed North Queensland to march into drop-goal range.
"If we kicked into the corner, had a big D set, got some field position and worked close to the try line, it might have been a better way to go, but we can address that through the week," Young said.
"But if Normie nails it from 40 metres out I'm pretty happy with him."
Young told Fox League pre-game that he expected to know whether he'd been successful in interviewing to be St George Illawarra's future head coach early next week.
Anthony Griffin and David Furner are among the other contenders.
