Brisbane coach Anthony Griffin said his side still had a lot of work to do before it reached its NRL potential despite putting 50 points on Newcastle.
Brisbane coach Anthony Griffin admitted despite beating Newcastle, the Broncos are far from their best form after allowing the Knights to close the gap in Sunday's NRL clash.
In the end, the 50-24 scoreline at Suncorp Stadium flattered Brisbane who scored eight tries to four.
But after racing out to a 24-0 lead in the opening 20 minutes the Broncos let the Knights get within two points before stretching their lead again to post the win.
"(We) probably should have had to (win it twice) after getting up 24-0," said Griffin who still hasn't found the key to Brisbane playing 80 minutes.
"We're not at our best."
Neither are Newcastle who coach Wayne Bennett described were "mentally fragile" when anything went wrong.
Despite their obvious frailties, Newcastle seriously threatened the Broncos before Sam Thaiday, Justin Hodges and Petero Civoniceva stepped up with big plays late in the second half as Brisbane rushed on four tries.
Amazingly, after their numb start, Newcastle got the scoreline back to 26-24 after a rampaging Richie Fa'aoso charge over in the 59th minute.
Even Bennett was impressed by the magnitude of his players' fightback.
"That start was the last thing we wanted the way we've been playing," said Bennett.
"I can't give them enough credit for that effort to come back and get (back) in that game. I'm just not sure how they did that.
"We're not playing with a great deal of confidence and that was obviously born out in the 24-0 situation.
"They got themselves in a position in the second half to win it and then to find a way to lose it, we took the soft option in the end and gave up some soft tries."
Bennett said Tyrone Roberts and Jarrod Mullen had found some rhythm which allowed fullback Darius Boyd, who came his closest to scoring his first try for the Knights this season, to play his best game of the season.
Bennett said a penalty awarded against back-rower Chris Houston after he took exception to a tackle by Alex Glenn when Newcastle had possession had been heartbreaking.
"The second half was a tragedy with Darius losing the ball over the line," Bennett said.
"We break the line a few times and throw bad passes and that penalty (by Houston) which broke our hearts and we gave up three soft tries."
Newcastle captain Danny Buderus, who scored two tries, agreed with Bennett on the Houston penalty call.
"Any time you give away a penalty in possession it's a killer," he said.
"But on the back of the effort we put in to get back into the game, that was a bit hard to take."
Griffin said anyone could see Brisbane still hadn't got it right as a team yet.
"I'm extremely happy we got a win and I was happy with the last 15 or 20 minutes because we were on the ropes there and they were coming to get us at 26-24.
"I'm happy the players went out there today and found 50 points but we've got some work to do."
