ESSENDON coach Matthew Knights says his side let a golden opportunity slip by losing to Richmond on Sunday despite dominating the inside 50 count.

"We let a big opportunity slip today, and that's a fact. We're not going to hide away from that," Knights said.

"If we don't smarten up, we'll find those teams behind us will bypass us so we've got to get back to work pretty quick and get a win.

The Bombers hold eighth spot on percentage from Port Adelaide and Hawthorn, one game behind seventh-placed Carlton.

They are on eight wins for the year, and may now need four victories from the final five games to make the cut after Sunday's upset loss.

Their run to September includes two trips to Perth to play West Coast and Fremantle, Melbourne games against top eight sides the Brisbane Lions and St Kilda, and then Hawthorn in round 22.

"We won't be resting anyone. I don't think we can afford to do that with this group, so we'll be taking our best side to all contests for the rest of the year and preferably win enough games to have a crack at the end of the year," he said.

"Only time will tell if we're going to be good enough."

He said his side didn't play their normal 'brand' of football until the game was gone against the Tigers.

"It's a terrible disappointment today to drop an opportunity, and drop a game like that, when at different stages, we gave ourselves an opportunity to win," he said.

"When you look at it statistically and you've had 80 more disposals and 12 more inside 50s and in excess of 20 more marks, it's very, very frustrating and disappointing.

"We copped our right whack today. Our skills weren't good enough; our hit-the-body skills without kicking, our handballs, weren't up to scratch.

"We didn't respect them as much as we should, and that's why we're a middle of the road side that can't push much further past that at the moment.

"We had patches in games where we played some excellent footy, and we've played some really poor, average football in some games too. That's our challenge."