Sheffield Wednesday head coach Henrik Pedersen admitted his players "were not the team we want to be" in their 4-1 defeat to Oxford United.
The Owls, who remain on minus points, had put in some improved performances in recent games, but were well beaten at the Kassam Stadium on Saturday.
"We were not the team we want to be," Pedersen told BBC Radio Sheffield.
"If you look at the last two to two-and-a-half months we have had a lot of good performances, very stable performances. We have seen a strong culture and a big culture.
"Today, I missed this strong culture. It has been a tough week for the players, we ran a lot on Wednesday evening at Middlesbrough and you can see today we were not as strong mentally as we normally are.
"When we don't have this we lose the connection. When we lose the connection we lose all the quality through the team, especially in the first half.
"I think in the second half we were much stronger defensively, we were stronger offensively and also created chances.
"But generally it wasn't a good performance for how we want to be at Sheffield Wednesday."
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