If you purely looked at the stats of Parramatta's round six clash against the Tigers, they won it everywhere but the scoreboard.
They ran for nearly 300 more metres, had more possession and better field position. Those stats generally indicate who the better side was across the 80 minutes.
But Parramatta made 15 errors. They had the ball for 43 sets but only completed 30 of them. The Tigers had the ball for 35 sets and only completed 27 of them.
This game can be characterised by the Eels trying to push the envelope far too much, far too often.
From the outset it was obvious the Eels weren't entirely switched on despite gaining early field position. When they went to their edges they lacked polish and it resulted in mistakes.
For all the talk of how supposedly good the Tigers defence was, it was Parramatta's lack of killer punch that really made them look good.
When Parramatta decided to play straight and direct, they turned the Tigers defence into wet cardboard.
First it was Isaiah Papali'i running straight and hard at two of the Tiger's smallest defenders and simply barging over. It's great work from Reed Mahoney to identify the smaller defenders and of course, Papali'i is simply too big and strong close to the line.
That try should have been a reminder of what the Eels needed to do.
Even without Junior Paulo, the Eels were physically dominant and plenty can be said for Brad Arthur's use of the bench or his bench makeup, but the fact of the matter is, this was a loss put down to a lack of a killer mentality than anything else.
Parramatta didn't respect the ball and they didn't do the basics well.
Here's another occasion though, where they got things right. Dylan Brown has been in excellent form this season and his running game probably puts him alongside Cameron Munster in the most dangerous ball runners list.
His left foot step catches out a retreating and tired Tigers defensive line who simply can't get up and close the gaps. The Eels needed a lot more of this than their sideways movement.
While I did mention the Eels should have won this match regardless of personnel, losing RCG during the game and with no Junior Paulo, Parramatta did lack firepower towards the end of the match.
Throughout the past few years, when the Eels have needed a lift in the final quarter of games, BA has been able to turn to perhaps the best front row pairing in the game.
The lack of that heavily experienced pairing probably meant the Eels struggled to re-orient themselves at the death. They didn't have a problem driving the ball downfield against the Storm when the match entered field goal territory, and much of that was down to RCG and Paulo's experience, and ability to drive their opponents backwards.
Against the Tigers, they had the first chance of the sides to win the match, and the lack of experience in the front row in the championship minutes was telling, with Oregon Kaufusi seemingly unaware of where his positioning needed to be or what his job was, stalling Parramatta's attacking set right as they were preparing for a shot at field goal.
Moses is left to take the ball, scamper sideways and find Isaiah Papali'i, putting Moses to the left hand side of the ruck where his right foot is closer to the defence and the closing pressure caused him to snap at the ball.
If the Eels take the one hit up, earning a quick play the ball, then Moses can settle onto his preferred right side to take the shot with a defensive line that isn't heavily pressuring him.
I'm not writing this to bash Kaufusi, it's simply an example of where Parramatta's heads were at through much of this game. It was disorganised when it needed to be professional.
Moses actually does well to simply get the kick off in time and come as close as he did.
Parramatta should be looking at this game as an aberration. The two games they've lost this season have been right at the death, in circumstances well within their control.
It's not panic stations. Far from it. But they have something of a season-defining month ahead as they face the Knights, Sea Eagles, Roosters and Panthers. They need to win at least three of those games if they want to be in the top four come the business end of the year.
And it's right around this time last season that things seemed to click. After going down to the Dragons in round five last year, they won the next five games.
Replies
With that field goal attempt where Moses ran to the right, Mahoney should have taken the tackle to let Moses set up and have Brown go to dummy half. Or get Gutho set up. Moses had to run back into place ready to kick not getting himself deep enough, where he was at first was better Mahoney needed to run then.
Mahoney should of threw the ball into the tigers player on the ground and got the penalty. Game over if he played it smart.
Very true, go for two and waste the clock.
They changed that rule a couple of years ago. Passing into a player on the ground is a penalty now. Although Mahoney could have fallen over him and essentially challenged the ref's interpretation of clearing the ruck.
He made no attempt to move out the way, so it would of been a penalty for sure if he fell over him. Anyways it's done and dusted now.
The players definitely lost the game because of not being patient. Good blog super. I'm sure if we stuck to the game plan instead of trying to score of every try we would of won easily. Onto next week and the knights.
Well broken down Super. We didn't play well at all but still should have won the game. That alone is encouraging. I don't think it's panic stations at all and if anything this might reinforce to the team that if you deviate from the plan, against any opponents you can pay the penalty.
It's not panic stations, I agree. But it's definitely annoying when largely the same team that beat the Storm a few weeks ago just lost to the Tigers. Early season wins mean so much when it comes to jockeying for position on the table come finals time.
Scanning places like Reddit it was clear how many Eels fans were nervous of this game specifically because we were overwhelming favourites. We need to stop playing teams at their level, it's one behaviour we don't seem to have been able to remove to date. This was a game where sticking to a simple game plan would have made it an easy win, but we went of script multiple times and then started playing nervous catch-up footy.
Injuries didn't help, but we still should have won by a country mile. We're like reverse-flat-track-bullies...we aim up well but can crumble against the easy beats. It's a habit that needs to be gone.
It's a habit that has been there a long time.
Great blog Super. The only thing I would add is the Tigers' contributed to our downfall. They hustled, were physical, in our faces, regularly offside, slowed the ruck; and we got flustered. We also looked fragile defensively at times.
It's not the first time we've imploded somewhat under pressure, and something we need to address IMO.
It's the 101 out of the playbook to beat us. Play intense for long enough, and we'll crack.
Additionally, a few calls went the Tigers' way, which didn't help; I think they were lucky not to get a few binned as well. Injuries led to us being somewhat disjointed which was another contributing factor.
PS: We have less than a 25% winning ratio when behind at the break, since 2019, our most successful period under Arthur.
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