Saracens Mark McCall had few complaints after the reigning Gallagher Premiership champions suffered a record 65-10 defeat at Exeter Chiefs.
The Devonians dominated from start to finish at Sandy Park, running in 11 tries in a powerful attacking display on their 300th top-flight appearance.
Full-back Josh Hodge led the way for the hosts with a hat-trick, with further touchdowns for Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Greg Fisilau, Ethan Roots, Tom Hendrickson, Henry Slade, Rus Tuima, Ross Vintcent and Niall Armstrong.
Saracens countered with second-half scores from Olly Hartley and Sean Maitland but it was scant reward on an afternoon when they were distinctly second best in all departments.
RECAP: https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/sport/23856003.premiership-exeter-chiefs-65-saracens-10---match-report/
And director of rugby McCall admitted it was a bad day at the office for the Londoners.
"We were second best in everything all game," he said.
"Exeter were very good and we were not very good. It's a tough pill to swallow and we were on the back foot all game.
"Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. We talked at half-time about a 40-minute game ahead of us and could we proud of what we did in that 40 minutes?
"I thought we started the second half a bit better, but right now we are going to have to lick our wounds a bit and see where we go from here.
"We have had results like this spread out over the 15 years I have been here and we have often had a group of players who have bounced back from those results.
"Right now, we have got a lot of thinking and reflecting to do, but it's always important not to look at too many things, just see what fundamental things we need to fix and then we will look to get that right."
Opposite number Rob Baxter hailed the 'fundamentals' behind his side's eye-catching performance.
"I have to give great credit to the players," said Baxter.
"We gave them a lot of guidance and we poured a lot into them this week. They have had to take that on, but emotionally I thought they got things bang on, which we didn't last week (losing to Bath in the Premiership Rugby Cup), and that allowed us to play and to do things.
"People will see some amazing tries today but that is based on two or three simple fundamentals being carried out, which then allows our runners to have that space and cause the damage that they did."
After a stylish showing from start to finish, Baxter challenged his side to use the victory as a building block for the season ahead.
"We were very good today," he added. "That said, Sarries have run up big scores against us before, especially at their place, when we have made similar mistakes and they have made us pay.
"As much as I like winning, the reality is I will keep my feet on the ground and I will challenge the players to do the things we did well this week again next week.
"If we think we are great now, we will lose next week. However, if we realise we have a lot of hard work to do, we give ourselves a chance again next week."
*copy from Press Association.
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