Two weeks after enduring the most embarrassing loss in the club's history at the hands of Canberra, Brisbane piled on 10 tries, half of them orchestrated by Lockyer.

Brisbane's performance, which included big games from Lockyer, Karmichael Hunt, Justin Hodges, Sam Thaiday, Corey Parker, Nick Kenny and Peter Wallace, nursing a hamstring injury, was badly needed before fronting up against Bennett's front-running Dragons in Wollongong next Friday night.

Penrith led 24-18 at half-time on the back of a hotly disputed Trent Waterhouse try.

But it had no answer to Brisbane's seven-try, second-half blitz that knocked it out of the top eight and lifted Brisbane back into it.

Penrith didn't register another point as Brisbane finally found the defensive steel sadly lacking over the past two months when it leaked more than 300 points.

Bewildered Panthers coach Matt Elliott didn't hide his anger at his players' flimsy second-half effort.

Asked if it was was ''unacceptable'' he said, ''Yes. Absolutely.

''There was no sniff of that at all,'' he said.

''It was a really important game, important for both teams, but only one side responded the way you would like.''

Brisbane's bench also starred with an inspired Ben Te'o grabbing two tries, the second off a spectacular piece of play out wide by giant forward Dave Taylor, while Ashton Sims pulled out his best game of the year.

Lockyer said facing up to a Dragons team whose seven-game winning streak ended on Saturday night against Canberra would be a massive challenge.

''They're the best team in the comp defensively and we don't want to be leaking points against them,'' he said.

''We had an opportunity [yesterday] to make a bit of noise and we did. The next fortnight [Dragons and Cowboys away] will be pretty crucial for us.