THERE were eight Adelaide players at best who could have walked off the field after Saturday's 55-point loss to Port Adelaide holding their heads high.

The rest, coach Brenton Sanderson said, needed to ask themselves some "serious questions".

For the second week in a row Sanderson's side had worked itself into a potentially winning position only for the wheels to fall off as its opposition cruised home.

Against the Power, the Crows kicked four consecutive goals to hit the lead midway through the third quarter from which point Port booted 12 of the next 15 goals to finish 55-point victors.

Sanderson was full of praise for "seven or eight" of his players including Richard Douglas, Rory Sloane, Eddie Betts, David Mackay, Daniel Talia and Brodie Smith, bust said the rest should spend some quality time in front of a mirror.

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"When you hit the front in the game and then lose by 55 we've got to ask ourselves some serious questions," Sanderson said.

"After that moment we hit the front I think contested possessions were minus 21, tackles in the fourth quarter were minus 14.

"In the end I think we just had too many passengers, we had too many guys who didn't contribute.

"So what's that, seven or eight players I thought could walk out of the change rooms today with their chin up, the rest have probably got to have a good, hard look at how they played."

Of particular disappointment was the function of Adelaide's forward line.

Other than Betts who made the most of nearly every opportunity and finished with four goals, the Crows had to look largely to its midfielders for any scoreboard pressure.

James Podsiadly and Lewis Johnston kicked one goal each but struggled to find the ball, while Shaun McKernan was hardly competitive.

Despite the key attacking trio of Taylor Walker, Andy Otten and Tom Lynch all being injured, Sanderson tipped changes up forward ahead of the club's round three clash with the Sydney Swans at Adelaide Oval next weekend.

"They were down today," he said of his forwards.

"I know it's a very different group to what we saw last year and we have got some guys with injuries - Otten and Lynch, who are pretty important to that mix.

"I think we kicked 11 goals but four of them were from Betts and the rest were just singles and (Mitch) Grigg kicked two.

"We'll have a look at our setups and we'll probably make some adjustments next week.

"It's a small sample size – two games – we've only won two of those eight quarters though."

Twitter: @AFL_Harry