Tipped by many to improve further after last year's return to finals football with star hooker Jayden Brailey and representative forward Tyson Frizell bolstering the squad, the Knights instead have gone backwards.
NRL.com Stats has crunched the numbers to see where it's going wrong.
Injuries have certainly played a part; while some clubs such as the Storm and Roosters have had significant losses and been able to cover those, the absences of Mitch Pearce, Kalyn Ponga and wingers Edrick Lee and Hymel Hunt have really hurt the Knights.
There have certainly been games where Newcastle's last-tackle options have proven costly but in raw numbers their kicking outcomes have been as good if not better than last year.
The team is conceding slightly fewer seven-tackle restarts on average with a slightly better rate of goal line drop-outs forced, while earning slightly more territory from kicks per game.
The problems appear to be concentrated at the start of sets for Newcastle; with no disrespect to the stand-in backs, the absences of Ponga (five of 11 games played), Hunt and Lee have been telling.
Newcastle's kick defusal rate had plunged from 72% to 62%, while average kick-return metres per game have dropped by almost a fifth from 104 to 84.
Busts from the back three are also down nearly a third, from over 14 per game to under 11. Yardage sets – which start with carries from the back – are down significantly from 39.4 metres per set last year to 36.5m this year.
Newcastle's overall line breaks both made and conceded are up slightly, loosely in line with an overall increase across the NRL, while errors made and ruck infringements conceded per game are both steady.
Their support runs are down dramatically, dropping a third from almost 100 per game; the club's two busiest support runners last year were Pearce and Ponga and their consistency in pushing up behind what is still an excellent pack.
Bench utility Connor Watson (almost seven supports per game) has led that category this year but he's not getting as much help as he should be.
Perhaps of most concern is the team's flimsy defence, with player try-causes up from 8.3 per game last year to 11.5.
"We're leaking way too many points so we need to get more resilient in defence," Watson told NRL.com.
"We've been very inconsistent. Our starts to games are killing us. We've put a big focus on that."
The team could also afford to be a bit more adventurous with ball in hand, Watson added.
"We're a bit tight with our shifting of the ball. We need to throw more footy and our back five can't be afraid to play a bit more with tip-ons," he said.
"We're getting bashed because we're running one-out."
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While not wanting to use injuries as an excuse, Watson admitted the absences of some key backline players had played part.
"It's been sad with Eddy not being able to play and with Hymel out as well," he said.
"We've had a lot of injuries and while we try and have that next man up mentality it's just not happening at the moment.
"We're missing guys but it shouldn't matter. The Roosters and Storm are missing a heap of players but are still getting the job done most weeks.
"It should never be an excuse for a lack of effort and I feel like our footy has been poor at times in that area.
"We don't have four weeks left to wait [for players to return], we have to act now and start winning footy games or it will be a long second half of the season.
"We're fortunate in a sense because even though we've played so bad the last six weeks we're two points out of the eight. It's the perspective we need to have."
There is a chance the club could be boosted by some mid-season recruits in the shape of Broncos prop Matt Lodge and incoming Cowboys half Jake Clifford.
Neither will solve their back-three woes but could add some impetus in the manner last year's mid-year buys Andrew McCullough and Blake Green provided a lift.
"I don't know what's happening there with Jake and Matt Lodge coming but you hear rumblings," Watson said.
"The guys we got last year in Macca and Greeny helped massively for us at this point of the year. If those guys came and gave us that same impact it would be awesome.
"But for now we need to get the job done with who we've got until then."
