Newcastle coach Adam O'Brien lamented "micro-sleeps" among some of his inexperienced players after the Knights' 21-16 loss to St George Illawarra.
O'Brien's side are at real risk of falling to a 2-6 record over the next fortnight after being stung late by the Dragons in Wollongong on Sunday.
It was Knights' fourth consecutive loss with their positive start to the season - wins in the opening two rounds - now a fading memory.
The club faces two of the competition's best sides in the Eels and Storm in their next two games in what shape as huge back-to-back appearances at home.
The Storm (5-1) sit in second on the NRL ladder while the Eels (4-1) were fourth before Monday's clash with the hapless Tigers.
Sunday's game at WIN Stadium was largely in the balance until the final minutes after a Bradman Best break helped the Knights level the scores at 16-all with 20 minutes left to play.
Best was one of his side's standouts and had what might have been an early NSW Blues audition in his clash with opposite number Zac Lomax should Souths star Latrell Mitchell not be able to play in game one.
The Knights trailed 8-4 at half-time but hit back in the 48th minute through Dane Gagai to take the lead for the first time.
It proved to be short-lived, though, with the Dragons scoring two tries in three minutes to move ahead 16-10.
With the momentum their way, the Dragons looked likely to go on with it until Best made a break down the left edge and put Kalyn Ponga in for a try behind the goalposts.
A frantic 20 minutes followed as both sides threatened but neither could find the try line until the Dragons struck in the final minute.
Zac Lomax's field goal put the Dragons up by a point with two minutes left to play but it would be Mathew Feagai's try that sealed it, his 79th-minute effort whipping the crowd of 11,113 into a frenzy.
O'Brien was critical of some refereeing decisions, saying he would seek "clarity" from the NRL this week, but he refused to blame the loss on the officials.
"We've got our own backyard to clean up," O'Brien said.
"I don't want to be the guy that uses that as an excuse.
"I thought we played some entertaining footy, some effective footy, but unfortunately there's two sides of it and we got done on some micro-sleeps."
Newcastle gave the home side too many easy metres in the opening 40 minutes, most notably when Ben Hunt caught Knights players napping from a drop out, kicking quickly and finding touch on the halfway line to regain possession.
The Dragons also benefited from a couple of seven-tackle sets and at one point late in the half, Simi Sasagi, who came into the side after Adam Clune withdrew, was penalised near halfway for not playing the ball square.
The Dragons missed 30 tackles in the first half, but still managed to hold an 8-4 lead at the break. The Knights' mistakes and errors could have led to a larger deficit given the Dragons completed at 90 per cent.
The home side took a 2-0 lead in the 20th minute after Jacob Saifiti was penalised for taking Jack Bird without the ball in front of the goalposts.
Ten minutes later the Dragons extended their lead to eight points when hooker Andrew McCullough, who hadn't scored in his past 27 games, found an opening from close range through Brodie Jones and Bradman Best.
"The team knows Andrew McCullough is going to test you on the try line. We know Macca, he has been a Knight," O'Brien lamented after the match.
"We have a micro-sleep at marker, we get done on it. We force a drop out and we are either too lazy or [it's] not important enough for us to get back into position.
"We got done on some young, inexperienced things, and they are some young guys, but we need them to grow up really quickly because we've got a big injury toll with some experience and it's the NRL, we've got to get better there."
With Newcastle desperately needing a boost before the break, Knights fullback Kalyn Ponga created something from nothing by using his explosive speed to split two Dragons defenders and throw a Gidley-like flick pass for Enari Tuala to score on the right edge.
Minutes after setting up the try, news filtered through that the Knights had reportedly pulled a three-year contract-extension offer for Ponga.
O'Brien slammed the report and said Ponga's performance was his best of the year.
"I thought he was by far the best player on the field," he said.
The Dragons retained the Alex McKinnon Cup with the victory.
