The prospect of playing the Broncos in Brisbane "scared" Ricky Stuart just minutes after a win last week.
His fears were well-founded after his side was issued a first-half reality check by a wounded Brisbane, who bounced back from three losses worth of frustration thanks to a Darius Boyd masterclass on Thursday night.
Ill-disciplined errors in their own danger zone and poor reads on the edges by Canberra allowed the hosts to build an 18-0 lead at the break, before going on to win 26-18.
With a top-four spot the prize for the winner the Raiders hit back hard and showed courage after the break, but the early mistakes proved decisive.
Stuart remained upbeat afterward, insisting the Raiders can fix their trouble spots.
"I don't have to tell the boys too much in there, they know what cost them," Stuart said.
"They're things we can fix easily, but we need to do it, too. The boys are disappointed but you've got to take away things from a loss like that which will improve you.
"The errors in that 25-minute period was just so crucial. There was an error upon error and three times, you can't give good football teams that luxury."
Six Broncos played in Origin I and Brisbane was coming off a five-day turnaround after playing in Auckland. But it was the Raiders who looked tired as they contributed greatly to their own demise in the first half.
Canberra entered the match after three-straight wins, but their flaws had been papered over by playing against out-of-form or under-strength opposition.
Stuart knew this and after last week's home win over Manly, where the Sea Eagles came back from 30-6 down late to lose 30-18, said: "If we finish like that against Brisbane, they'll beat us by 40. Next week scares me."
Poor first halves have plagued Canberra all year and this time they paid the price, with Boyd continuing his outstanding season.
Boyd was unlucky not to be given man of the match in Queensland's Origin I win, and Broncos coach Wayne Bennett believed he was near career best form.
"Playing fullback [in representative football] has probably made his career from his point of view because it's the one arena he hadn't played fullback in, Australia or Queensland, and it means a lot to him," Bennett said.
"In 2010 at the Dragons he was in the Darren Lockyer mould at fullback, perhaps he's approaching that again."
Maroons forwards Matt Gillett, Josh McGuire and Corey Parker were brilliant, but Brisbane's return to form was tempered by the loss of Alex Glenn (shoulder) and Jordan Kahu (pectoral), who could be out between two to four weeks.
The Raiders began the game well but struggled to turn it into points and once the unforced clangers came the floodgates opened.
They missed 26 tackles to Brisbane's nine in the first half and completed 62 per cent of their sets.
Raiders prop Junior Paulo could come under scrutiny from the match review panel after seemingly executing a crusher tackle on Boyd early in the game.
After 10 minutes Paulo squandered an opportunity to set up Canberra's first try when he threw a forward pass inside despite Canberra having an overlap down the right edge.
In the 17th minute Raiders fullback Zac Santo was also penalised for a crusher tackle on former Raider Travis Waddell.
The Broncos looked set to score from the next set through Anthony Milford, but Santo pulled off a one-on-one strip to deny a certain four-pointer.
Both sides looked disjointed in attack early on but the Broncos finally opened scoring when Corey Parker ran onto an Adam Blair short ball and side-stepped Raiders five-eighth Blake Austin.
With 10 minutes left in the first half Boyd made Jordan Rapana pay for an ill-advised offload near his own line by stepping inside Raiders halfback Aidan Sezer to extend the lead to 12-0.
Soon after Boyd exposed Canberra's left edge defence again, the Raiders backtracking on their own line to virtually gift wrap the Queensland custodian a double.
The opportunity came after another error in Canberra's danger end from Clay Priest.
Early in the second half Boyd took advantage of more Raiders retreating on-line defence to secure his hat-trick.
Canberra hadn't been kept scoreless since early 2013 and Kurt Baptiste ensured that would stay in tact when he barged over from dummy-half midway through the second half.
The Raiders threatened a comeback when Sezer bounced back from an otherwise poor game when his banana kick set up a try to halves partner Blake Austin with 14 minutes left, before Baptiste darted over for his second try near full-time.
BRISBANE BRONCOS 26 (Darius Boyd 3, Corey Parker tries; Parker 5 goals) bt CANBERRA RAIDERS 18 (Kurt Baptiste 2, Blake Austin tries; Jarrod Croker 3 goals) at Suncorp Stadium on Thursday night. Crowd: 25,021. Referees: Henry Perenara and Ashley Klein.