No, Trump had to prove that he should be taken seriously. Anyone could see from a mile away that the moderator would be biased. If Trump wasn't prepared for that reality, then he was even more underprepared than I thought he would be. The fact is, Hillary was rehearsed. She played her hand well and Donald took the bait, hook, line, and sinker.
The moderator didn't bring up Clinton's flip-flops, scandals, etc. However, Trump easily could have. If he wasn't so busy talking about himself and bragging himself up, he could have easily deflected everything back onto Clinton. He was doing all right early on in the debate, but he just can't refrain from falling into obvious traps. That's his own fault, not anyone else's. When you're going up against a Clinton, it's something you have to be prepared for.
Here's an example. At the beginning of the debate, Hillary is talking about the housing crises and decides to try to present herself as the compassionate candidate (all Democrats do) by pointing out that Donald Trump anticipated the collapse and couldn't wait to capitalize on it. Amidst Hillary's spewing of facts regarding people who lost their money, their homes, etc., Trump coldly responds, "That's just business."
Okay, we know it's just business. However, instead of giving out an Ebeneezer Scrooge answer, he could have deflected it back onto her by joking something like, "Well, it's like you once said, 'Never waste a good crisis!'" It would have pointed out the hypocrisy of Clinton and at least have let people know that they share similar flaws.
There were multiple opportunities to give better responses or to simply deflect criticism and hold a mirror to Hillary, but he did what he does best instead.
Trump did not prepare for this debate, meanwhile, Hillary was preparing months in advance for it. This is why it went down the way it did, and only Trump can be blamed. Maybe he'll prepare more for the next debate.