The Tigers were awful after quarter time, with an 18-point deficit turning into a 37-point advantage to the Dogs by the main break.
The statistics told the story. The Dogs had 13 more contested possessions in that quarter alone, plus nine more clearances.
Morris said the Tigers were simply let down by too many players in that short period of the game.
"I think that's the thing – the fact no one really stood up at that time," Morris told AFL.com.au.
"At Richmond, we really pride ourselves on the fact that we're trying to build team leadership. We're not relying on one person to stand up.
"We're all leaders out there and hopefully in times like those, at least we've got someone to stand up and steady the flow.
"It's really disappointing. We got ourselves back into the game and we know why we did that. We just shouldn't have found ourselves in that position in the first place."
Morris, who ran with Luke Dahlhaus for much of the game and acquitted himself well, said the players had not looked ahead to the Tigers' daunting upcoming month of matches.
Before their round-eight bye they play Collingwood, the Brisbane Lions (at the Gabba), Hawthorn and Geelong.
Morris acknowledged the Tigers needed to get better at being in control of games for longer, after being exposed again in a single period of football.
"It's the big question. We've just got to find a way for ourselves to be able to change momentum within the game," he said.
"Those momentum swings can be really important.
"We obviously held that in the second half and we nearly got over the line but we need to be able to lessen the impact of their momentum throughout the games."
"I think [in] our second quarter … we let ourselves down in key areas that we really pride ourselves on.
"We'll go back and have a look at the tape and see what we can do to improve that."
Morris said it was frustrating to fall to one win after three rounds, particularly after a game they felt they could win.
He added it was encouraging the Tigers were able to respond to coach Damien Hardwick's half time challenge to take it up to the Dogs.
"The one word that springs to mind was fight. We just needed to get in the fight and fight for our club and our jumper, which we really pride ourselves on," he said.
"We can take some positives away from the fact we did fight in that second half and when we were challenged and we got ourselves back in it.
"We certainly did fight … but it wasn't enough."
Morris was icing his right shoulder in the rooms after the game but said it was "fine".
Twitter: @AFL_JenPhelan
