A controversial try to Justin O'Neill levelled the scores on 58 minutes before Valentine Holmes edged his side ahead with a penalty goal, stemming from Ryan James' late hit on Cowboys halfback Ben Hampton.

O'Neill pounced on a Scott Drinkwater grubber, but replays of the try appeared to show the centre's left foot was in front of the kicker when the ball made contact with the boot.

It capped a stirring comeback which looked impossible just minutes before the main break when Raiders halfback George Williams sprinted away to score untouched and send his side to a commanding 24-6 lead.

Williams dropped the ensuing kickoff undoing all of his good work, and Ben Condon helped himself to another of Drinkwater's grubbers to give the Cowboys a sniff going into half-time.

"I don't know if they're changing points, you've got to be tough enough to defend those types of scenarios," Raiders coach Ricky Stuart said.

"I thought it was a try we could've defended there, we defended the first five tackles really well, then the kick got through and they got a good bounce and scored.

"That's a little bit of the passage of footy we're in at this stage, it's happening quite a bit at the moment. We've got to keep working hard and sticking together.

"We've been in this position before, we've just got to stick solid and try and work our way out of it."

Stuart said after the ugly home loss to Parramatta last weekend that certain individuals weren't standing up for the Raiders, so he wielded the selection axe.

Joseph Tapine and Sia Soliola were dropped, while Josh Papalii and Hudson Young were demoted to the bench.

Papalii injected plenty of life when he came on the field, offloading to back-up hooker Tom Starling close to the line, who in turn put Emre Guler over for a try.

But for all the positives Canberra produced in a 25-minute first-half burst in Townsville, there were just as many errors. Twelve in fact, over the 80 minutes in a game where they completed at just 68 minutes.

Starling threw two forwards passes, Guler made multiple handling errors as did co-captain Jarrod Croker, Dally M Medalist Jack Wighton kicked the ball out on the full.

It was uncharacteristic from Stuart's men, certainly by 2019 and 2020 standards, but the reality is now three losses on the spin and just a five-day turnaround before hosting the high-flying South Sydney Rabbitohs on Thursday night.

"It's an easy answer to give when you lose three in a row, confidence, that's the easy option, the tough option is getting there Monday and working hard and being honest with each other," Croker told Foxsports at fulltime.

"I'll be the first one, I'll jump in, and we'll talk about it and work on what we need to be better at. That's the bottom line we need to be better we can't be looking to confidence as an excuse."

For 20 minutes in the first half the Raiders were in control and playing some impressive football, but their combinations fell apart after the main break and the Cowboys took full advantage in front of a boisterous home crowd.

Drinkwater's crafty kicking game was a constant threat close to the line, while the ever-lurking Valentine Holmes terrorised Canberra's defence from fullback.

Stuart's side lost control of field position in the second half and were unable to muster any meaningful attack after half-time.

"You give them field position and they didnt relinquish it in the second half, they kept the momentum and kept the field position and kept making it really hard for us to get out," Stuart said.

"Once we started making some sets on sets in D then all of a sudden we lost our shape and lost our ability to play."