The Bulldogs were out to atone for last month's 66-0 loss to the Knights when they travelled to Newcastle on Sunday but instead fell to the same 30-0 half-time deficit.
Canterbury lost Harrison Edwards and Jacob Preston to the sin bin in quick succession during the first half but mostly rued poor discipline with and without the ball.
"You can't win games when you complete at 60 per cent and lose penalty counts the way we did," Ciraldo said.
As was the case in their most recent big loss, 44-18 to Penrith in round 21, the Bulldogs pulled it together in the second half to prevent a repeat of their last result against Newcastle.
"We'd been there before and we didn't handle it well," Ciraldo said.
"In the second half, to get it to 12-6, I thought we did a lot better. We were a lot more disciplined."
But Ciraldo conceded the 36-point margin nevertheless came as a surprise.
"We had our best week of preparation probably all season," he said.
"Our intensity at training, our level of commitment to our preparation was elite-level this week.
"But that's one week. To be a good team and to win games, you have to do that week on week on week for long periods of time.
"We've just found how to prepare like an elite NRL team should so if we keep preparing the way we did this week, the wins will come in the future."
The game marked the fifth time in seven games that the Bulldogs conceded more than 40 points.
Co-captain Reed Mahoney lamented that the trend was becoming tiresome.
"We've got a lot of practice to do during the week to get that right because it's happened a lot," he said.
"Games just can't keep blowing out to 40 points. It doesn't get enjoyable.
"There were too many times we weren't vicious enough with our defence, especially off the kick-off.
"When you turn the ball over too many times and give them easy field position, it's a hard game to play at the best of times."
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