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Canterbury will look to do more with ball in hand as they aim to avoid a 1-6 start to the NRL season against North Queensland on Friday night.

The statistics tell a quirky tale, but Canterbury coach Dean Pay isn't completely buying them ahead of Friday's clash with North Queensland.

The Bulldogs (1-5) have never made the finals after a 1-6 start to an NRL season but will at least not have to contend with Jason Taumalolo, whose return from a knee injury has been put back a week.

Pay's side have struggled to put up big numbers this season, ranked last in tries (2.2) and points scored (11.7), while making just 2.8 line breaks per game.

Those statistics come despite the Bulldogs boasting the NRL's best completion rate (80.3 per cent) this season.

The coach conceded it may be time to be more adventurous with ball in hand against the Cowboys (2-4), but that the scenario wasn't as black and white as that.

"The last two weeks we've made plenty of errors," he said.

"In the first month of footy we were quite good, but the last couple of weeks just making simple errors on tackle one, tackle two which really hurts you.

"We do (need to be more adventurous), but we need to hang onto it.

"You can't do the amount of defensive work we do then have the energy to attack because to have that limited amount of ball does hurt you."

Pay saw improvements defensively in a 14-6 loss to South Sydney last week but admitted it had been tough without star pair Dylan Napa and Kieran Foran, who are both out with serious ankle injuries.

"We're one from five so we wanted to be better than that obviously," he said.

"It's another really tough team to play, who had a really good win last week (against the Warriors)."