After Wednesday's 1-0 reverse at home to Augsburg, Mats Hummels and Roman Weidenfeller spoke to angry supporters, who were expressing their ire at having seen their team drop to the foot of the table.
But the 3-0 triumph at Freiburg will have calmed fears slightly as Jurgen Klopp's men ascended to 16th.
Marco Reus put the visitors ahead in the ninth minute before Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang netted twice in the second half to seal all three points as Dortmund climbed above their opponents.
At the opposite end of the table, the top two of Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg both enjoyed victory.
Bayern, who had taken one point from their two matches since the mid-season break, were grateful to goals from Arjen Robben and David Alaba for their 2-0 win at Stuttgart.
For Wolfsburg, record signing Andre Schurrle had an immediate impact by setting up the opening two goals for Bas Dost and Kevin De Bruyne in the first half, with the latter adding a second with six minutes remaining to secure a comfortable 3-0 win.
Pal Dardai's interim reign at Hertha Berlin got off to a good start as the capital club won 2-0 at Mainz, in a game which saw both sides finish with 10 men.
Mainz goalkeeper Loris Karius was sent off just after the half-hour for bringing down Valentin Stocker inside the box, and Jens Hegeler converted the resulting penalty.
Roy Beerens added a second three minutes before the interval, and Hertha - who sacked Jos Luhukay in midweek - were able to hold on despite seeing Fabian Lustenberger dismissed just before the hour-mark.
Hannover shot themselves in the foot somewhat during their 2-1 defeat at Hamburg.
Joselu missed a penalty for the visitors midway through the first half, and then Marcelo put through his own net to give Hamburg the lead.
Marcell Jansen doubled Hamburg's advantage, while Artur Sobiech's strike proved nothing more than a consolation for Hannover.
Elsewhere, Cologne's meeting with Paderborn ended goalless.
