A career-threatening knee injury to Adelaide forward Brett Burton has compounded the misery for the Crows who were no match for Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday.
The Pies, for whom small forward Paul Medhurst was at his mercurial best with five goals, remain in the hunt for a finals' double-chance following their 32-point victory - 15.16 (106) to 11.8 (74).
But while the Magpies' momentum is building, Adelaide's season is unravelling fast.
Eyeing-off a top-four spot just a month ago, the Crows must now be in danger of missing out on the finals altogether following this, their fourth-straight defeat.
They will go into the remainder of the season - starting with next week's Showdown XXV - down on form, their confidence shot and critically short of class up forward.
Burton's left knee buckled underneath him when he tried to change direction while contesting with Harry O'Brien early in the third quarter.
The 30-year-old, who had been the most dangerous and productive forward on the field with four first-half goals, was in tears as he was stretchered off with a suspected ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.
With Burton gone and Jason Porplyzia unable to play any further part after dislocating a shoulder early in the contest, the Crows were without their two leading goalscorers for the season.
Not surprisingly, the scoring dried up with the shell-shocked Crows' three second-half goals all coming late in the final quarter when the horse had bolted.
The visitors set the early tone despite losing Porplyzia at the 12-minute mark of the first quarter.
Burton contributed one of Adelaide's four first-term goals to help the Crows to open up a nine-point break at quarter time, then added three more majors in the second term - two of them following frees for holding and pushing by Nick Maxwell.
On the back of the Birdman's fine finishing, the Crows' lead had blown out to 28 points by midway through the quarter before Collingwood fought back with five of the next six goals to cut the margin to just three points at half-time.
A Ben Johnson goal got the Pies rolling with a shot on the run, then, minutes after stuffing up when he played-on and hit the post from point blank range, Paul Medhurst made up for it by casually goaling off one step from where the 50 metre line intersects the boundary.
Snaps from Cloke and Thomas and a strong mark and conversion by John Anthony maintained the Pies' surge,