The injury-plagued visitors showed great fight throughout and were in the game at three-quarter time before being blown away by the Crows, losing in the end by 44 points.
Jones believed North weren’t able to create enough opportunities up forward despite often getting first use of the footy.
“We couldn’t quite get the effective inside 50s like they (Adelaide) did towards the end of the game,” Jones said.
“When we did manage to get in there our structure wasn’t quite right and they were too good.
“We kicked the first one (in the final quarter) and tried to take the game on, but it didn’t work out, and they ended up winning the footy and were very clean going the other way.”
Both sides deployed heavy zones, which made scoring difficult in the wet conditions, and Jones felt this made his side’s job even tougher, especially considering their low goal kicking record in recent weeks.
“Their zone was really effective tonight and we couldn’t quite get through it," he said.
“We probably didn’t run and carry and break the lines and when we did kick, we didn’t penetrate into space.”
Jones, who finished with one goal in his first match since round three, was also disappointed for milestone man and former skipper Adam Simpson, who was playing his 300th game.
The forward praised Simpson’s character and influence, and said that North used this as an extra motivating factor before the game.
“It’s a bit disappointing for poor old Simmo (Adam Simpson) because he’s been a champion bloke and a champion player.
“We had a fair crack and things didn’t go our way, but he’s a very worthy 300-game player.
“Unfortunately we couldn’t capitalise on that and it was a good old fashioned slog, which you don’t mind, but we just couldn’t get the result we were after.”
With a young team out on the ground, Jones said the two-week break would hopefully invigorate the side physically and mentally.
North has been crippled by injuries throughout the season, and the crisis was further worsened by young gun Jack Ziebell's breaking his leg in the third quarter on Sunday, Lindsay Thomas straining a hamstring and Daniel Pratt hurting his shoulder.
“We’re the walking wounded at the moment and we’ve got plenty of injuries," Jones said.
“The week off will be really good because we’ve got a pretty young group too and we’ll launch for the last 10 games and hopefully get in some form and sneak into the finals.”