"Error and inefficiency" saw Carlton cough up a 41-point lead to a young Richmond outfit on Thursday at the MCG.
Blues coach Michael Voss was "disappointed" in his post-match address after his men failed to meet the heights required for top-level football.
"It was pretty disappointing. Yeah, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. To be in the position that we were in early in the match and give up that lead and that position was โ yeah, couldn't be more disappointed," Voss said.
"As the game went, you could sort of see clearly Richmond were gathering more energy. As they're gathering it, sometimes you've just got to stay in that fight when things aren't working for you, and we just weren't prepared to stay in that fight.
"Through error, through inefficiency, they were able to claw their way back, through probably increasing their pressure and capitalising on our mistakes and being a little bit inefficient when we went inside 50, so that was really disappointing.
"But the momentum in the game was certainly against us towards the second half, but what was it, nine goals to two in the second half? It shouldn't have happened that way."
Carlton had 53 more possessions than their opposition, while also dominating the inside 50 counts (65-40), contested possessions (229-189), turnovers (71-82) and even shots on goal (24-17).
Voss was questioned as to whether his side was complacent and coming up against a rebuilding and youthful team.
The Tigers unveiled three debutants from the 2024 draft including the prized Pick 1 Sam Lalor, who impressed with 18 touches, eight score involvements and two goals.
Richmond had also secured last year's wooden spoon after a two-win season, but after seeing seven premiership players depart the club, the pain was tipped to get worse.
"Gee, I really hope not, because humility has been a significant thing for us," he said.
"It may be talked about externally, but there's never a comment about where an opposition team are, other than it's round one. It's a start of the season. Everyone's got hope. Everyone believes they're a chance and you roll into round one and anything can happen.
"We also know the history of these games, Carlton versus Richmond in round one, they're close. So no matter wherever people have proposed that we're estimated where the teams have been, and how they've projected to be at the end of the season, the reality is, these games have been close. And gee, I would hope that wasn't the case. I really would."
After a poor start to 2025, Carlton face a difficult three-week period, taking on Hawthorn, Western Bulldogs and Collingwood in prime-time fixtures.
