Having registered just one win from their seven matches since the State of Origin decider, the Roosters are feeling the heat - but none more than the man at the helm.
Brad Fittler made his mark in the game's elite coaching ranks last season as the 'smiling assassin', a level-headed bloke who took everything in his stride.
And why not?
His team was performing for him. Through the opening rounds of the 2008 season - they were daring, brilliant and damn near unbeatable.
But staring down the barrel of three straight loses - the worse losing streak of his short NRL coaching career - Fittler knows he's under a world of pressure to get results.
"The result is very important," Fittler told News Limited.
"I think it's very important."
"You just feel like you've got no room to move.
"I've been feeling this way for a long time - not just the past three weeks. The job is just so demanding on the mind.
"I've always been the bloke who said 'yes' to everything but that's had to change. I just don't have the capacity.
"I didn't realise it would get to this point. It's an extremely demanding job mentally."
The Roosters have scored a total of six points in their past 160 minutes of football, but Fittler knows finger pointing will get them nowhere. Instead, he is willing to take the wrap.
"My job as the coach is to motivate the players and that's not happening 100 per cent," he said.
"That's what I've been looking back on.
"I've been looking back on the past seven weeks. We've come out of the State of Origin period very poorly.
"The reasons I've found are personal. But I feel I'm closer to the answers than last week.
"It's been really obvious that we have not come back from (State of Origin)."
It's no coincidence that the Roosters' form slump has arrived at a time when the likes of Braith Anasta, Mitchell Pearce and Craig Fitzgibbon are struggling - but Fittler says it's time for his Origin contingent to step up.
"They are our most vital players and we really need them to perform and perform under pressure," he said.
The Roosters will be playing to keep their top-four hopes alive against the Rabbitohs on Friday night at the Sydney Football Stadium.
