Dragons head coach Filo Tiatia declared that he was content with their first block after his side avoided a slip against winless Zebre.
“I am happy with where we are, but we have a lot of work to do,” he said.
“The next block is so important and it’s five weeks before we hit Edinburgh, then there are nine games to Munster at the end of January.
“We need everyone fit, fresh and ready to scrap for the club.”
The November break is timely for Dragons, whose squad was creaking for Zebre.
They were without 18 players due to five Wales calls and injuries, while several players were bruised and battered.
That comes after an encouraging first block that featured three wins, a draw and a missed opportunity at Benetton but two disappointments against Ospreys.
Dragons got their Challenge Cup campaign off to a winning start against Perpignan and have 14 points in the URC.
That is half of last year’s total, although they are yet to play a side that made the 2026 play-offs and none of those they have faced are in the current top half.
The driving line-out has been a weapon, Tonga wing Anzelo Tuitavuki has scored tries in five successive games and the attack looks more threatening.
“We got some stats through at the end of last season around where we sat in terms of our attacking game,” said coach Matt O’Brien.
“We were pretty good at our launch stuff – our line-out and scrum attack – but our unstructured game needed a bit of work.
“We focused heavily on that and have had some good improvements, with our offloading one of those areas.”
Dragons will hope their Wales contingent of Aneurin Owen, Che Hope, Dillon Lewis, Ben Carter and Seb Davies, Argentina prop Rodrigo Martinez and Tongans Tuitavuki, Fetuli Paea and Fine Inisi come back unscathed.
Dragons results: DWLWLW