Roosters star Mitchell Pearce admits a loss against an out-of-sorts Cronulla on Saturday would leave his side's premiership tilt in tatters.
The Tri Colours head into the Round-8 clash in 14th spot on the NRL ladder after three-consecutive losses.
While Pearce is confident his side is capable of turning things around, he concedes they already find themselves in a do-or-die scenario having won just two of their first seven matches.
"It's a must-win (match) this week, we don't want to hide from that," Pearce told Sportal.
"We've been playing good footy in patches and then other parts of our game are just real undisciplined.
"We've got to win and start to get on a bit of a role so I think all the boys are ready to go."
Pearce is adamant the Roosters are not as far off the pace as their position on the ladder implies, despite their heavy last-up loss at the hands of the in-form Dragons on Anzac Day.
"It gets a bit frustrating because it's not like we're getting flogged every week and especially against the Warriors we were up 16-0 and we felt unbreakable and then we came out in the second half and went backwards," he explained.
"It's there, we've just got to keep working hard and fine tune the little things in our game that will hopefully get us to win games."
Ask to rate his own progress, Pearce, who finds himself locked in a head-to-head battle with Peter Wallace for the Blues No.7 jumper, replied: "I've been happy with my game, I feel like my game's improving each week and that's what you try and do."
"I wasn't too happy with my game on the weekend, as a team I don't think we played really well."
"But I want to turn it around this week and get a few wins - I want to start getting up the ladder a bit."
The Roosters' task was made more difficult by the NRL judiciary on Wednesday night, after Sharks enforcer Paul Gallen was cleared of a careless high tackle charge.
And the skipper intends to make the most of his reprieve against Brad Fittler's men at Toyota Stadium.
"I've got to get my head down and get back on the field and worry about playing for Cronulla," he said.
"That's my main focus – winning for the Sharks and getting our club back on the winner's list where we should be."