Tony Mowbray described Sunderland's midweek performance at Huddersfield as the worst of his reign. Mowbray's judgement was harsh on a 2-0 win played out in rain-lashed, stormy conditions in West Yorkshire, but no matter - it held the title for less than 72 hours.
Sunderland's display against Cardiff City was worse. Way worse.
Not merely because they lost. Although they did.
READ MORE: Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray explains why he made changes against Cardiff City
But because they looked like an accident waiting to happen right from the word go. Their passing was dreadful, their movement off the ball was poor, and their decision-making was awful.
To the Sunderland fans who witnessed their team's second-half collapse against Burnley last time out on Wearside, it must have seemed as though they had returned to the Stadium of Light a fortnight later only to find that that game was still going on. Burnley scored four times in that second period to turn a 2-0 half-time deficit into a 4-2 final scoreline.
Cardiff could, and should, have been out of sight by the break and, had they been anywhere near as ruthless as Burnley, they would have been. Mowbray made four changes to the side that started at Huddersfield, and Sunderland fans were delighted to see striker Ellis Simms make his first start since returning from injury, while Jack Clarke was an automatic pick after sitting out the midweek game through suspension.
But Mowbray also elected to freshen up his midfield, rotating the experienced duo of Corry Evans and Alex Pritchard out of the side and bringing in Dan Neil and Abdoullah Ba in their place. His reasoning was clear - Evans and Pritchard, at 32 and 29 respectively, cannot play every single game and will need a break at some point.
Neil and Ba are talented players in their own right, but pairing 20-year-old Neil with a 19-year-old who was making his first start in English football was a high-risk strategy, and it backfired. Sunderland's midfield was too easy to play through, and it was telling that the Black Cats did not manage to gain a measure of control on the game until Evans and Pritchard replaced Neil and Ba just before the hour.
Neil and Ba were not the only players who were below-par - Patrick Roberts, Simms, and Clarke all fell into that category, too - but they were certainly the most noticeable.
There was a scare inside five minutes when Neil was caught in possession on the halfway line and he was relieved that Sheyi Ojo could not capitalise, but that mistake set the tone. A slack backpass from Bailey Wright had Anthony Patterson scrambling, and Danny Batth prevented Jaden Philogene getting to the loose ball, conceding a penalty in the process, only for Patterson to bail out both centre-backs with a brilliant save from Joe Ralls' spot-kick.
Mark Harris scored what turned out to be the only goal early in the second half, and soon after that Mowbray made his changes with Evans and Pritchard entering the action. Immediately Sunderland improved, but Cardiff had a lead to defend and ultimately the Black Cats could not carve out the clear-cut chance they needed to find an equaliser.
It was an immensely frustrating afternoon, and it showed once again that Sunderland are heavily reliant on some key men - not only strikers, as has been well-documented over the last couple of months, but also the likes of Evans. Sunderland slipped one place to 13th in the table, and next up they head to Birmingham City on Friday for their final game before the World Cup break.
When the season resumes in early December, they could have the likes of Ross Stewart, Daniel Ballard, and Aji Alese available again, and that would make a big difference.
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