When the Pies get beaten, they get beaten handily.
They led Hawthorn by 22 points late in the second term at the MCG 12 days ago and ended up losing by 55 points.
They trailed for most of the Anzac Day clash against Essendon, but with 10 minutes to go were within striking distance of the lead.
"We have to find an elevated minimum level. We can't afford to let games slip away when they're in the balance," Buckley said afterwards.
He was referring both to the collective at Collingwood and to the individual.
Feted for his career-best seven goal haul last week, Travis Cloke spilled half a dozen reasonably simple marking opportunities and finished with just two goals on a dirty day.
Going back to last year, the Pies have been opened up late in games.
Hawthorn has made a specialty of it against Collingwood during it's four-match winning streak, Sydney kicked away late in a tight preliminary final and the Bombers did so again on Thursday.
"It's not sides coming at us, it's just us dropping away," Buckley added. "It's not what's happening to us, it's what we're doing about it. It’s in our control and something we will attend to and review."
"There's a positive and a negative," noted star midfielder Scott Pendlebury afterwards. "We're in games and in the second term we dominated the game, but didn't get reward for effort. We were 4.12 at half-time."
"But the alarming thing is that we get blown away. It's over once we feel the game is over.
“There's nothing wrong with losing by three goals and hanging in there and hanging in there because that carries on to the next week.
"But now there will be questions every time we're behind. And it's not just this year."
Watch all the highlights from the Anzac Day clash.
There will be questions internally at Collingwood about a pair of momentum-killing free kicks that the Bombers received late in the third term that blew the margin at the final change back out to four goals.
Both were for interference and while the first to Scott Gumbleton was debatable, the second, to Tom Bellchambers, was downright soft.
"They could have gone either way," said the diplomatic Buckley. "We lost both of them - so be it."
What won't be debated internally is the disappointment at losing Alan Toovey to what almost certainly will be a season-ending ACL injury.
"'Toovs' is a fantastic competitor, he would rate just about number one among his peers in terms of who's most dependable," said Buckley.
"Any way you cut it, he's going to be a loss for us. We hope for the best, but it's likely a rupture, so it provides an opportunity for those remaining to pick up the slack that he's going to leave."
"He's a heart and soul player of our team," added Pendlebury. "When you talk about the first picked in the team, it's usually Alan Toovey every week."
Better news for the Pies is that Luke Ball resumes after his knee reconstruction and subsequent complications, playing for Collingwood in a VFL game on Friday night against Bendigo.
And Pendlebury, for one, cannot wait to have him back. He said the Pies ran ahead of the ball and were smashed at the contests for too long against the Bombers and that Ball's eventual return will help address that.
"What went wrong in the last 15 minutes is what 'Bally' does naturally," he said. "He hunts the footy and we need that."
Ashley Browne is an AFL Media senior writer. @afl_hashbrowne
