Adelaide's defence was outstanding in the first half, with James Sellar and Ben Rutten holding Magpie forwards Chris Dawes and Travis Cloke goalless, while Michael Doughty, Graham Johncock and Matthew Jaensch worked well off half-back, driving the Crows into attack.
The Pies were kept to 2.10 in the first half, but appeared a different side after the halftime break.
The Crows responded well to a revitalised Collingwood side in the third quarter and went into the final break two goals up, but the Pies were just too good in the final term kicking 11 goals to Adelaide's two.
"Let's talk about the cold reality of the game where I thought we were very good against Collingwood for certainly the first half," Craig said.
"The third quarter I thought we actually responded to Collingwood coming at us, but then we just capitulated in the last.
"They’ve got to understand that they can produce a brand of football that I thought was outstanding for a long period of time. But we also have to understand that we've got a bit of a soft underbelly in a real tough contest.
"There's some real hope with what we're doing and the group that we're starting to assemble, but a big reality check of where we're at."
The Crows were on par with Collingwood in the contested possession count at half-time, but by the end of the game the Pies won that measure 150-132.
Although they were unable to sustain that kind of intensity and effort for the entire match, the Crows showed for three quarters why most punters had them penciled in as a top eight side at the start of the year.
"You got to be really good at the contested part of the game to play Collingwood, and you've got to be able to sustain it," Craig said.
"They play a very strong contested game and that's the way probably AFL footy is going.
"The beauty of us today was that we were able to show and demonstrate to our supporters that we've got a quality and standard that we can get to, but we cannot sustain it like Collingwood, Geelong and probably Hawthorn can at the moment."
Craig said playing a highly contested brand of football took its toll on some of his younger players in the final term, who were unable to sustain the intensity over four quarters.
"If it's a fitness thing; it's a tough way to play," he said.
"You can argue it's fatigue, we've got a lot of young guys at the moment in our side, nine or 10 guys in the side with less than 20 games, so their capacity as well mentally, to keep going and keep responding, is where we'll get our improvement."
