Adelaide's Round 9 loss to West Coast was a wake-up call and should spark the Crows into action against Essendon at AAMI Stadium this Friday.
Coach Neil Craig said the clash against the Eagles was a reminder of how challenging it is to succeed in the AFL.
"You are dealing with highly motivated athletes in all clubs and the competition is so close, even though the premiership table wouldn't suggest that," Craig said.
"If we ever needed a reason again to understand and appreciate how tough it is to win a game of footy we got it last week."
"And that's why Essendon to us this week is no different to Hawthorn, Geelong, Western Bulldogs, Richmond or whoever."
Craig said his team was keen to make amends in front of their home crowd.
"We need to respond very aggressively and in a real positive fashion and that's why it's such an important game for our group and that's from Simon Goodwin, captain of our club, down to Kurt Tippett and David Mackay," he said.
"It's a big game for us ... we need to respond to what we put on display last week."
Craig said he didn't care where Essendon were on the ladder because he expected a competitive clash from any side that ventured to AAMI Stadium.
He said the Bombers had shown some positive signs in recent times despite their lack of success.
"They've got the capacity to run the ball really quickly, we saw that earlier in the year and we are starting to see aspects of that in the last couple of weeks again even though they've lost," he said.
"I think Matthew (Knights) is trying to add an element of defence to their game, so there are a lot of good things about Essendon."
Craig said Luke Jericho and Andy Otten were pushing for selection while Trent Hentschel continued to improve in the SANFL.
But while the Crows are disappointed with their last performance, they aren't expected to make wholesale changes to their side.
However there was an indication the current players are under pressure to retain their spots if their poor form continues.
"In the high performance environment that we want to create here, high performance humans make changes very quickly so we need to see that," he said.
"There will be some discussion but there won't be enormous changes."