The Canberra Raiders gave up a 16-0 lead to be overrun by the Parramatta Eels 22-16 in Darwin on Saturday night.

It meant the Raiders missed the chance to move to second on the NRL ladder.

Having starred for NSW on the Origin stage last weekend, Wighton played a large role on both sides of the equation back for the Raiders.

He scored a try, set another one up, single-footedly forced goal-line drop-outs, but also produced five errors in front of 5391 fans in Marrara Oval's heat.

But he wasn't the only one who was loose with the ball in the greasy conditions, with a raft of his teammates also letting it slip.

In a sign of his maturity, Wighton put his hand up for the loss.

"I've got to take a lot of the blame. The harder I tried the more errors I made," he said.

"I just couldn't get a grip on the ball tonight and the boys need me around.

"We've got to really go and have a look at ourselves ... we let ourselves down tonight."

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart didn't hold back after the game.

While the Raiders had a torrid time taking 17 hours to Darwin on Thursday, he wasn't using that as an excuse for his team's performance.

That would be the easy way out.

They needed to look at themselves and fix what went wrong to ensure their great start to the season wasn't wasted.

The Raiders have become one of the best defensive teams in the NRL this season and Stuart doesn't want that to be wasted.

"If you want to be soft and look for excuses, but I'm not going to be," he said when asked if their preparation played a role in the capitulation.

"You don't get to a 16-0 lead 30 minutes into a game of football and have that rot for the next 50.

"If you want to go for soft excuses, they'll be there.

"If you want to be fair dinkum, you want to be tough, you want to work to find out the real reasons and fix it the season mightn't be all over.

"But if we want to deliver that kind of crap, we're wasting our time."

It's hard to know whether the Raiders will have any concerns over a crusher tackle on Parramatta winger Maika Sivo, given the NRL decided to crack down on them last week.

Sivo was caught in a tackle involving Corey Horsburgh, Ryan Sutton and Josh Hodgson.

The Eels will have an anxious wait themselves with prop Peni Terepo put on report for a swinging arm that forced Raiders winger Jordan Rapana from the field with blood streaming from his nose.

He passed the head injury assessment, but not without missing the final 12 minutes of the first half while Terepo remained on the field.

Tries to fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Wighton and centre Sebastian Kris shot the Green Machine to their 16-0 lead, but things started to unravel just before half-time.

The Eels scored two tries in two minutes to only trial 16-12 at the break, with Manu Ma'u and Blake Ferguson crossing to end a Parramatta try drought against the Raiders that dates back to May 2017.

Raiders co-captain Jarrod Croker fumbled the ball into Ferguson's arms for the flyer to race nearly the length of the field to put the Eels in front for the first time.

Eels halfback Mitchell Moses slipped through three tackles to cement the lead off the back of a Wighton loose carry.

Parramatta coach Brad Arthur said even when they were down 16-0, he still felt they were in the game.

"I thought we tried really hard early, we just tried too hard individually," he said.

"We made two or three clean line breaks and tried to score on the next play, so we just lacked patience.

"As a footy team we've got to learn that we don't have to score off every play. We've got to grind and build and build."

Both teams now have the bye ahead of Origin III.

AT A GLANCE

PARRAMATTA EELS 22 (Blake Ferguson 2, Manu Ma'u, MItchell Moses tries; Moses 3 goals) bt CANBERRA RAIDERS 16 (Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Jack Wighton, Sebastian Kris tries; Jarrod Croker 2 goals) at Marrara Oval. Referees: Matt Cecchin, Jon Stone. Crowd: 5391.