Philippe Clement will no doubt cite his team's better performance in the second half and the point they earned as evidence that his players are still pulling in one direction. Many others will disagree.
With absolutely no margin for error after another ill-timed slip in Paisley on Thursday, the Belgian players' first-half performance at Fir Park was nothing short of atrocious.
Two goals down when they left the pitch, it would have been fascinating to hear the thoughts of new Ibrox chief executive Patrick Stewart.
The visitors were so unhappy that the prospect of Clement being relieved of his duties before Celtic arrived at Ibrox on Thursday seemed more like a probability than a possibility.
While the manager got more from his players thereafter (with a share of the spoils claimed by a brace from substitute Hamza Igamane), the collective effort throughout the piece fell far short of what was required in the circumstances.
All in all, this was another dark day on the road for Clement. Only three wins out of nine away from home in the Premiership have contributed greatly to them being 14 points behind Celtic before the end of the year. It is a truly regrettable record.
Rangers manager Philippe Clement saw his team fall 14 points behind Celtic in the table.
Motherwell's Apostolos Stamatelopoulos celebrates scoring the first goal in a 2-2 draw at Fir Park
Hamza Igamane came off the bench to score a brace that saved a point for Rangers.
After equalizing after the break, Rangers could very well have won this match.
For all that, Motherwell will feel aggrieved at failing to record their first regular season league win against Rangers at Fir Park in 22 years.
While you can't argue with the VAR decision that deemed Tony Watt's goal 2-1 offside, Stuart Kettlewell was aggrieved that his striker was penalized for a foul on Jack Butland when the goalkeeper put the ball into his own goal while defending a corner.
Clement's attempt to rotate his team ahead of the Celtic match had blown up in his face on Boxing Day in Paisley. That didn't stop him from doing the same in North Lanarkshire.
Even though Leon Balogun was injured, Vaclav Cerny was tired and Ianis Hagi stayed home with a fever, the Belgian made no less than seven team changes.
Ridvan Yilmaz, Robin Propper, Cyriel Dessers, Nico Raskin and Danilo entered. Oscar Cortes made his first appearance since September, with the less prominent Kieran Dowell making his first start in almost four months.
Kettlewell renewed his team after the four-goal defeat at Parkhead, with Liam Gordon, Andy Halliday and Apostolos Stamatelopoulos.
The Rangers at least started out as a team with something to prove. A quick change of play allowed Yilmaz to gallop forward. His cross took out two defenders. Dessers stretched and made contact, but Aston Oxborough recovered.
Motherwell absorbed the early pressure and waited for their chance to take control. Against Rangers these days it's usually enough.
The first chance came when Mohamed Diomande was dispossessed on the halfway line by Tawanda Maswanhise. The Zimbabwean moved forward and shot meekly into Butland's arms.
Kettlewell's players gained confidence from that point on. The caution Propper received for a clumsy challenge on Maswanhise was unnecessary.
The first goal came in the 16th minute. Propper failed to win a routine header. Maswanhise put the ball into the box between the Rangers central defenders and Butland. Nobody in the visiting team took charge of the situation. Aware of the indecision around him, Stamatelopoulos slid and passed the ball under the goalkeeper.
Rangers' hopes of VAR penalizing Stamatelopoulos for an earlier handball came to nothing. The Rangers were already facing an uphill battle to avoid another defeat down the road.
They should have been leveled in no time. Cortés sent Yilmaz flying down the left flank. His cross found Danilo unmarked six meters away. The Brazilian's header lacked precision and conviction and deflected harmlessly past the far post.
While Rangers once again lacked quality, their application could also be questioned here. Motherwell won more 50/50s than they were entitled to. After an initial flurry, Clement's players retreated into their shells and looked like they'd rather be anywhere else.
The difference in both paintings was marked. Rangers looked unconvincing on the rare occasions they did get close to the Oxborough goal. Motherwell always looked dangerous.
His second goal was a peach. Dujon Sterling headed the ball into the air when he had to clear his lines. Maswanhise showed extraordinary composure to snatch the ball out of the sky in the corner of the six-yard box.
A velvet touch brought out James Tavernier and set him up for an audacious side-foot attempt. He crossed the goal and found the bottom corner.
The noise in the stadium was cacophonous: the cheers of the home fans mixed with the boos of the stunned visiting fans.
Rangers' attempts to close the gap before the half-time whistle were terrible efforts from Cortés and Yilmaz. Dowell managed to kick fresh air 25 meters from the goal.
Cerny and Igamane came on at half-time. Truth be told, Clement could have made a lot of changes.
The young Moroccan did exactly what was asked of him in five minutes: he smashed the ball after Danilo hit the post. Out of nowhere, the Rangers gained a foothold in the game.
Oxborough's outstretched arm denied Cerny an equaliser.
Butland then prevented home substitute Watt from restoring Motherwell's two-goal lead.
Everything was getting pretty tense. Kettlewell received a red card from referee Kevin Clancy and was invited to take a seat in the stands. Motherwell found the net from an Andy Halliday corner, only for Watt to foul Butland to interrupt their celebrations.
Butland would soon be the most relieved man in the stadium.
Having made a mistake by tipping the ball towards his crossbar, he saw Watt finally find the net, only for VAR to find that there had been an offside from the original free kick.
Within five minutes, the Rangers were even again.
Igamane seemed to be on a one-man mission to prove that Clement was wrong for not playing him from the start. He collected the ball on the left side of the box after Yilmaz had put it in and played an exquisite curling shot to find the far corner.
The Rangers had enough time to complete an unlikely comeback. Cerny saw his shot blocked on the line by Ewan Wilson. In the 10 minutes of added time, which became 11, Danilo shot over.
There was still time for Cerny to recklessly catch Watt off the ball. The result was a yellow card for each one.
In the end, the Rangers didn't have enough. That has been said a lot since this year began.
motherwell (5-4-1): Oxborough 6; Kaleta 6 (Ebiye 81), Casey 6, Gordon 6.5, Blaney 6, Wilson 6.5; Paton 6 (Nicholson 75), Halliday 6 (Zdravkovski 75), Miller 6 (Sparrow 67), Maswanhise 7; Stamatelopoulos 7 (watts 45).
Reserved: Miller, Sparrow, Watt, Nicholson.
Manager: Stuart Kettlewell 6
ranger (4-2-3-1): Butland 6; Tavernier 5, Sterling 5, Propper 5, Yilmaz 6; Diomande 6 (Bajrami 89), Raskin 6; Dowell 3 (Igamane 45) Danilo 5, Cortés 5 (Matondo 65); Desserts 3 (Cerny 45).
Reserved: Propper, Sterling, Cerny.
Manager: Felipe Clemente 6
Referee: Kevin Clancy7.
Attendance: 8,728.