Trailing by 51 points early in the third term of Friday night's game, the Bombers staged a daring comeback only to fall 36 points short of a far more experienced St Kilda side.
"There is no temptation to do that [bring back older players]," Knights said. "I’m going to keep putting in younger players to give them an opportunity to play at this level.
"The more game time we can get into young guys the better.
"I won’t have a specific philosophy to try and steady the ship or get it back on track.
"We know where we are headed as a group, we know we’ve got a lot of work to do but we’re really excited about the future and where we are headed."
Knights lamented his side’s 39 inside 50 entries - a season low - and said many of those failed to penetrate a St Kilda defence which set up many attacks off half-back.
While the first-year coach vowed to keep playing kids, he acknowledged the youth policy was the root of side’s inability to put four quarters together.
"That was the theme I spoke about at the team meeting, about having four-quarter consistency," he said.
"You look at St Kilda and they had about 18 or 19 experienced men out there and we had about nine or 10. That consistency is a concern because we’d like to play four quarters and, if we do play four quarters, we’re capable of winning.
"But you can’t consistently play two, two-and-a-half or three quarters and win footy games.
"That’s what we are going to have to work on."
After the game, Knights addressed his charges about the 29-possession effort of 36-year-old Saint Robert Harvey.
"If you want an education on how to run out games, you’ll find no better example than Robert Harvey," he said.
Knights praised the efforts of Bachar Houli, who was one of few Bombers to play a well-rounded game, and added the team had to learn to find avenues to goal outside of skipper Matthew Lloyd.
The Bombers captain had just seven possessions and failed to kick a goal for the second time this year, opposed to St Kilda full-back Max Hudghton.
"We’ve got to better at picking better options," Knights said.
"Then when we did get it up there, we didn’t make too much out of nothing at the fall of the ball."
Knights said he had not spoken to Lloyd post-game but would do so at Monday’s review after scrutinising the tape of the game.
With two wins and three losses, Essendon faces Collingwood on ANZAC Day - next Friday.
