'It feels like our eighth loss' - Marais
Marais admitted that his charges didn't take advantage of their many opportunities and made it too easy for the Brumbies to take control.
"We weren't accurate," said Marais.
"In the first half we played a bit of the ball and we conceded a lot of penalties.
"We made it easy for the Brumbies to defend and all credit to them, they took advantage of it."
The men from Pretoria will be going back to the drawing board after their high penalty count at the breakdowns and, despite a number of 50-50 refereeing calls, Marais acknowledge that the Bulls need to have a more clinical approach at the facet.
"The breakdown was a big concern for us and I knew from the beginning that (David) Pocock would be busy," said Marais.
"But the Brumbies are very good at the breakdown and we should've just been more accurate."
The Bulls did well to keep Pocock out of the game as the breakdown specialist only made one steal in Canberra, but the Bulls boss lauded the Brumbies performance.
"Yeah, he got a vital steal on the 22, but I just think it was a good effort from the Brumbies," he added.
"Last week we got a bit of momentum and we like playing on the front foot and we just didn't get that chance."
This was only their second loss in the expanded competition, but Marais says the defeat did quite a bit of damage to their momentum.
"It feels like we've lost eight in a row after the Brumbies game, but we have to bounce back," he said.
"Next week we must just make sure that we're better prepared for the Waratahs."
Skipper Adriaan Strauss also praised the Brumbies' and said that they'd have to prepare thoroughly for the match against the Waratahs next week.
"They put us under pressure," said Strauss.
"We made a lot of tackles, more than the scoreboard would suggest but I think they just too advantage of their opportunities.
"Half of the possession we had we gave right back to them so credit to them, they were good."
