Germany coach Joachim Low was at a loss for an explanation as his side continued their struggles in European qualifying by settling for a 1-1 home draw with Republic of Ireland on Tuesday.
Toni Kroos broke the deadlock in the 71st minute, but John O'Shea poked home in stoppage time to secure a valuable point for Ireland.
Low will see it as two dropped points for Germany, who are coming off of a 2-0 defeat to Poland last week.
"We are all disappointed," Low said. "When you are up 1-0 until the last minute and concede a goal, that's normal. It was their only chance, but we were too naive in the last few minutes, and played too many balls."
Three months after winning the World Cup, Germany now find themselves mired in the middle of Group D, level on points with Scotland and three behind Poland and Ireland.
"I don't have an explanation," Low said. "We no longer kept the balls. Lost too many in defence, and in midfield, played too many balls to [goalkeeper] Manuel Neuer, who was forced into playing long balls. That was not what we wanted."
Low found it difficult for the world champions to break down Ireland's defence, especially in the first half.
"It was a difficult match. Ireland parked the bus, and we needed to get the balls, make runs from midfield," he said. "We needed to be patient, and already knew before the match that we will not create too many chances.
"In the first half we were not able to use the complete width of the pitch. That's why it was difficult for Ireland to defend us. It was better in the second half, more pressure, and we also created more chance, but were not able to reward ourselves."
Kroos said Germany had difficulty adapting at the end of the match when Ireland began to push forward.
"I am not shocked, more has to happen. But we are all disappointed. That was completely unnecessary," he said.
"We played well for large parts of the match. But everything was different in the final five minutes. We played 20 long balls, more than we played all year. We changed our playing style in the last five minutes. That annoys me."
For the equaliser, O'Shea got ahead of Mats Hummels with seconds of the fourth minute of stoppage time remaining. But Low said he was not the only German player to blame for the defensive lapse.
"Mario Gotze should have attacked the cross, he had Erik Durm as his backup," Low said. "And also we have to know that we should not defend ball-orientated but man-orientated in the box. Mats Hummels has been out injured for a long time, but he should have been closer to O'Shea."
A frustrated Gotze questioned some of Germany's strategic changes as the game neared its conclusion. Max Kruse came on for Julian Draxler, while Sebastian Rudy replaced Karim Bellarabi in the second half.
"We played really, really well. The goal is just annoying," he said.
"I'm not sure why we made those changes towards the end. Of course, we have some pressure, but we were also capable of getting those three points. It's just annoying that it ended that way."
ESPN FC's Stephan Uersfeld contributed to this report.
