The Magpies were beaten 2-0 at home by West Ham United in the Premier League.
The home loss means the Magpies are losing ground on the top five teams, but Howe felt they should have gotten more from this game.
He told Sky Sports: "I don't think anything takes me by surprise in the Premier League, we know every team has qualities.
"We were the dominant team at half-time and the game would have been very different if we had equalised before the first half.
"I'm pretty pleased with the first 60 minutes albeit we're losing the game 2-0. We opened them up and had chances to score. Up to that point I was pretty pleased but the last 30 minutes I didn't enjoy. We tried a bit too hard to score. We'll rue that when we watch the game back.
"For both goals we know we made individual mistakes. It was disappointing from our perspective. Very uncharacteristic from us because we've defended well in recent weeks.
"At the end we had players out of position, so I didn't like the way we looked at the end. But up until that 60 minute mark I thought we were the dominant team.
"For Callum's (non)-penalty I thought it was a tight call and I'd need to see it again. The offside goal looked tight, I thought it would be a longer review and hopefully drop in our favour."
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