Broncos coach Anthony Griffin believes his side were the architects of their own downfall on Friday night, with constant dropped ball and poor defence the main instigators in the 25-18 loss against the Eels at Suncorp Stadium.
The Broncos were too slow out of the gates in both defence and attack, blowing countless chances to score throughout the match which was further punctuated by the fact they held the ball for 44 minutes inside Parramatta's half.
Despite attacking with the Steeden for eight minutes more than their opposition, a lack of execution was evident for the Broncos as they only completed 66 per cent of their sets, compared to the Eels who were slightly better on 73 per cent.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Griffin made mention of Brisbane's profligacy with the ball and their poor defensive effort, but gave credit to a determined Eels outfit who started the game in sprightly fashion.
"They started very well in the first half and we were very poor," Griffin said. "No disrespect at all to Parramatta – they were very good, but that was certainly our worst performance for the year.
"I think we were about 60 per cent (completion rate) with the ball and [with] not much intent defensively.
"We had to play from behind and grind back in and we did that, but in the end they were just too good."
The Eels showed too much potency in attack for the Broncos to handle, their first two tries by Will Hopoate and Semi Radradra were both scintillating long-range efforts, exposing Brisbane's soft underbelly in defence. In total the Broncos missed a whopping 39 tackles, frustrating Griffin.
"We just kept shooting ourselves in the foot," he said.
"Defensively we weren’t there all night. We've been good for a month but tonight we let ourselves down and we were off where we need to be."
Broncos co-captain Corey Parker reiterated that his side were lacking in all departments against last year's wooden-spooners, who look like a much improved outfit in 2014.
"They certainly have a good side and when you don't turn up against them it makes it pretty hard," Parker said.
"For whatever reason it was, our defence wasn't there tonight so It's important for us to get back to training on Monday, work hard and head down to the [Gold] Coast (against the Titans next Friday)."
