Brisbane are good enough to challenge in the NRL's finals according to coach Wayne Bennett, but finding that form against bottom-eight teams is proving a far bigger challenge.
Thursday night's 36-22 loss to Canterbury was particularly costly, as it left them four points out of the top four.
Most frustrating for Bennett was the fact it was the Broncos' fourth loss to a bottom eight team and that they'd suffered more losses to teams below them than the six above them.
The other problem for Brisbane is that when they are bad, they are really off.
The scoreline flattered the Broncos as they scored two late tries, while seven of their eight defeats have been by 12 points or more.
But Bennett believes his team can still get it right for next month's finals.
"That's our challenge right now," he said.
"It's not that we can't play and match it with the good teams - all our best results have been against top-eight teams.
"Our problem is we get two or three weeks of football and we throw one of these games in. And it's against the bottom eight teams on all the occasions."
Aside from their two defeats at the hands of ladder-leaders Melbourne, Brisbane's only other defeats to top teams have come in round one to St George Illawarra and last month to the Warriors.
Meanwhile, they have beaten South Sydney, the Sydney Roosters, Cronulla (twice) and Penrith in the past three-and-a-half months,
But they have lapsed against the Gold Coast, Newcastle, Manly and now the Bulldogs.
"The closest thing I can relate to is they are all hoping someone else will do the job and the majority of them are thinking the same," Bennett said.
"If you saw it (before the game) you would be over it pretty quickly and onto the players.
"But we had a pretty good week at training. We had a wonderful performance at training last week so there is no reason."
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