Blues suffered their first defeat under Rowett's management against former boss Lee Clark's side at Bloomfield Road on Saturday.
"We never got going," Rowett said after the game.
"You felt it was one of those games. You knew it was going to be scrappy.
"I don't think the pitch helped us play the way we wanted to play but you've got to manage that.
"There's a lot of them playing against their old manager and I think some of them expended a lot of nervous energy in getting up for the game and I don't think that helped them."