Freddy Eastwood's early opener for the Shrimpers was cancelled out by Gulls midfielder Joss Labadie on the stroke of half-time to make it six home games without a win for Paul Sturrock's side.
"We're making three, four or five changes each week and that's costing us," said Sturrock.
"Before this game we had players failing fitness tests and other phoning in sick and we ended up picking a back four we've never had before.
"It's not ideal because a successful team is normally a settled one and that's something we haven't been able to get recently.
"But saying that I thought we got the reaction we wanted if not the result out there.
"It's disappointing not to have won but I'm feeling far better about my players than I did after losing to AFC Wimbledon on Tuesday night.
"Torquay are also a better team than their league table suggests but we've made it hard for ourselves to get in the top seven now and we will go hell for leather to try and get in there."
