Canterbury coach Trent Barrett has conceded his team wasn't willing to match Parramatta's physicality in a 32-10 defeat at Stadium Australia on Saturday night.
A week after claiming their first win of the season over the Sharks, Barrett was disappointed his players "didn't come with an attitude to tackle well enough" against the imposing Eels pack.
"Against a side like that - they're big and they're a physical side - unless you come with an attitude to roll your sleeves up, you're going to be in for a long night," Barrett said post-match.
Canterbury were starved of good-ball opportunities as Parramatta built a 16-0 half-time lead but Barrett said that was their own fault.
"They rolled us down the field pretty easily. The difference in where we were bringing the ball off our line all half as to where we were turning the ball over for them was chalk and cheese," he said.
Ava look at this tackle on Lane
"Ultimately, you get hurt on the back of that, but individuals didn't tackle well enough. You can't win games unless you tackle well against a big, physical side like that and we didn't.
"We showed some fight in the second half and got back into the game, but some poor discipline and failure to finish the end of our sets well - which has been a problem for the last two months - hurt us."
After conceding a try in the first set after the break, the Bulldogs gave themselves faint hope when Jake Averillo and Dallin Watene-Zeleniak scored in quick succession to reduce the margin to 22-10.
Show and plenty of go from Averillo
But the game was effectively decided within 40 minutes.
"[The gap in class] was pretty noticeable tonight. We've just got to keep working hard, that won't change," Barrett said.
"They're trying. If you've got no resolve in your team you don't get back into the game in the second half like we did. But we can't afford to give away that many points in the first half.
"To beat those sort of teams and to compete with them, we need to be at our very best and we weren't."
Prop Dylan Napa played only 16 minutes due to a shoulder injury. Barrett didn't know the extent but said "it's not great".
Bulldogs chance their arm on the last for DWZ try
