Canberra prop Dane Tilse couldn't care less his 200th game had been ruined by the Raiders giving a huge lead in Saturday's 22-20 loss to St George Illawarra.
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What annoyed him most is the fact it dashed the respect the Raiders had built over the first two weeks of the competition.
Not for the first time in recent history, the Raiders imploded after racing to an early 18-0 lead, and Tilse said "there's no excuse" as Canberra readies for a brutal five weeks.
Canberra faces the Roosters in Sydney, Manly at Albury, Melbourne at home, Tigers at Leichhardt and Souths at Cairns in a stretch that could make or break their season.
Raiders coach Ricky Stuart was in no mood for talking about what went wrong after the Dragons fadeout, his post-game press conference lasting just three minutes.
Canberra is now 1-2 and was lauded as one of the NRL's big improvers after a round-one win at Cronulla and a strong showing against the Warriors.
But the Raiders of old returned against the Dragons, errors and lack of mental strength inviting them back into the contest.
"To be honest the 200th doesn't concern me that much, for me it's we started the comp reasonably well and started to build some credibility," Tilse said.
"The boys probably thought the job was done and clocked off. There was a 15-minute period [before half-time] when we were losing the ruck and when that momentum swing happened, we didn't handle it well at all.
"When we got that lead we slackened off, let them back in and they got a sniff.
"It just goes to show in the NRL you can't clock off at all, we have to have a really hard look at ourselves this week."
The Raiders are a young side but Tilse insisted inexperience isn't an excuse for taking shortcuts.
"To be honest whether you're 22 or 30, you've had games like that through your career in reggies, twenties or first grade," Tilse said.
"There's absolutely no excuse for it.
"We've shown we can play some good footy the first two rounds, we have to make sure that was an out-of-character performance.
"There was some easy options being taken out there and we didn't have the mental toughness to close the game out."
Canberra must now regroup before facing a Roosters side that, along with defending premiers Souths, has been the most impressive team this year.
It will be the first time the Raiders will play against Blake Ferguson since they sacked him in late 2013 for a series of off-field incidents.
Ferguson was deregistered by the NRL last season but has returned at centre this year for the Roosters.
"If we can't rebound from that, there's something wrong," Tilse said.
"We're confident if we play our best footy we can beat any side on our day.
"We do have a tough run coming up against some strong teams, that's true, it makes this loss hurt even more."
Raiders winger Sisa Waqa (knee) went off injured in the second half, and will be further assessed by medical staff on Monday.
SUNDAY
NRL round four: Sydney Roosters v Canberra Raiders at Allianz Stadium, 2pm
