Cowboys skipper Tom Dearden was brutal in summing up his own performance, while coach Todd Payten refused to Origin as an excuse for his side’s 42-8 thrashing by the Roosters.

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Dearden backed up after starring for Queensland in their win in Origin II, but the Cowboys captain was disappointed with his showing in the loss to the Roosters.

“The body felt good, like I was ready to go, and I just was really disappointed in my performance,” Dearden said.

“I thought I was horrible tonight.”

Dearden called on his players to show more solidarity when things are not going their way.

“I think just in those situations, you’ve just got to stick together,” Dearden said.

“I know everyone’s probably sort of lost for answers at that stage in that second half, but it’s about knuckling down in those tough times and sticking together, because the only way we get ourselves out of that situation is by doing it together.”

The Cowboys rested Origin stars Reuben Cotter and Reece Robson while Jeremiah Nanai came off the bench, but Payten couldn’t cop using that as an excuse for his side’s display.

“No, it’s not an excuse, far from it,” Payten said.

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“No, not a contributing factor, one little bit. If you look at some other teams across the competition, they’re handling it perfectly, and we’ve done so in the past, so irrelevant.”

Payten is concerned his side conceded multiple tries off the kick-off in back-to-back sets as the Roosters ran riot.

“We got bullied, it was men against boys there for a little bit and that’s concerning,” Payten said.

Payten believes the Cowboys are their own worst enemies with their ball handling.

“Without sounding like a broken record we are putting too much pressure on ourselves again,” Payten said.

“Three yardage errors early in the game. One after three minutes, second one after seven. Put us straight on the back foot, so we’re leading the competition in yardage errors.

“It puts far too much pressure on our D and there are moments where we could be better there, but I just happen to do too much and given the opposition field position, and week after week is the same thing at the moment.

“The game has always been about field position and possession.

“We’re not getting enough of it at the right end and we’re not helping ourselves with our own ball handling or discipline in different games with oppositions coming out of their own end.”

Payten refused to rule out making changes to the side after they slipped outside the top eight.

“We’ll be considering it (changes), definitely off the back of the last two weeks,” Payten said. “But we’ll have a look at what’s underneath and then reassess and get to work.”

Payten revealed he expects his Origin stars back on deck next week.

“Touch and go, they could have played,” Payten said of Robson and Cotter.

“Made a decision about what’s going to help us down the road rather than a short-term decision.

“And don’t want to squeeze the lemon too much now. It’s having a bit more juice in it when it really matters.”

Payten was hopeful his side could have turned the game around after half-time, but they were not able to hold the momentum.

“I thought the momentum had swung leading into our try and that was off the back of four consecutive sets,” Payten said.

“That’s the blueprint. And then we weren’t good enough to hold them out at the start of the first half.

“We conceded a try after about five continuous sets and then didn’t get a good ball set until 17 minutes to go in the second half, so disappointing and far from good enough.”