Sam Docherty wasn't expecting Carlton to plummet back to earth with an embarrassing 93-point AFL loss to GWS.
Injured co-captain Docherty suggested there was a belief the worst of the Blues' struggles were over after an honourable round-eight loss to Collingwood.
They instead slumped to their heaviest defeat of the season at Giants Stadium on Sunday, renewing pressure on coach Brendon Bolton.
It left the Blues outright last with a 1-8 record after earlier losses to fellow bottom-three sides Gold Coast and North Melbourne.
"They've all been hard (losses) in their own certain ways," Docherty told RSN radio on Monday.
"The Gold Coast game we let slip late in the game and we were disappointed with how we played that last little bit.
"The North game hurt as well because ... we played six or seven games that were pretty consistent and that was a bit of a blip on the radar.
"This hurts because we thought we were past it."
The Giants kicked away to a 40-point lead at quarter-time to virtually kill off the contest.
Docherty highlighted the seven-goals-to-one first quarter as a recurring issue after poor starts against Richmond and North Melbourne across the first nine rounds.
"I probably learnt less than two weeks ago that we have to rock up with a brutal mindset early in the game otherwise you do get punched in the face against a good side, and that's what happened," he said.
Sitting out a second straight season with a ruptured ACL, the All-Australian defender called on the Blues to show more against St Kilda at Marvel Stadium on Sunday.
"We've got to ask hard questions and we'll do that internally this week and, hopefully, we'll get the response next week," Docherty said.
"It would be naive to think that ... these losses don't burn with us and they don't hurt us."
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