It's the question on everybody's lips: are the Dragons choking? Okay it's probably not the question on the lips of any Dragons players themselves - they're too busy choking to have anything left over on their lips at all.
But back to that question. Are they choking or not? After losing to the Raiders I said 'no'. A loss is a loss. Sometimes it's a welcome wake-up call.
After losing to the Broncos (and failing to score a try) I said 'maybe'. It's not the end of the world but the signs aren't great. Defence is vital, no doubt, but you won't win the grand final without scoring a try.
But after losing (sorry, capitulating) to the Rabbitohs I say 'yes, with as much certainty as Jarryd Hayne winning Man of the Match next weekend'. That's pretty certain.
The Dragons are in trouble. Quite incredibly the former competition favourites, and apparent shoe-ins to claim at least the minor premiership, might now enter a match as underdogs against an Eels side still not guaranteed to make the finals at all.
Where did it all go wrong? Or perhaphs the more pertanent question is where did it all go right? Were the Dragons really that great to begin with? They started the season superbly, jumping out of the blocks like Usain Bolt. But as we all know, the premiership race is not a sprint.
The Red V set their bar so early on that other teams have had months to find ways of reaching it. Bettering it, even. And they have. There are sides that contain more dangerous players. More unpredictable threats. The Dragons' success was based on doing the little things right and playing with confidence whilst others found their feet.
Unfortunately those little things got so tiny they barely seem to exist anymore. And when some of those others finally found their feet, they realised they were looking down at size 16s. The Dragons were still wearing 12s.
Scoring points still doesn't seem to come naturally to them. One gets the feeling they always believed in themselves to prevent tries more capably than create them. The problem now is that the breadstick has gone stale at both ends. Tries are proving harder to find than Wendell Sailor's shy side, whilst the Bunnies made a mockery of that supposedly stingy defensive wall.
It's panic stations at Kogarah. And Wollongong. In fact it's more than just panic stations. It's panic stadiums, panic cities, panic Westfield shopping centres. Panic, panic, panic. Choke, choke, choke... then panic some more.
Are the Dragons choking? Get practising on your Heimlich Maneuver; this could get ugly.
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