The Blues' 13-point victory margin could have been far greater had they converted even a quarter of their 20 behinds - 13 of which came in the second half.
The visitors dominated possession and should have set up match-winning leads early in the second quarter and again in the third, but kept the Lions in the game until late on.
"It'll bite us one day if we don't do something about it," Malthouse said.
"We've missed too many in the last few weeks from positions where you should just kick goals. 6.4m - it's not exactly tiny.
"We seem to be making it narrower every time we have a shot for goal.
"Is it technique? I don't know. Is it mental? I think once you miss one, you tend to tense up a bit."
With the exception of Kane Lucas, who kicked three goals, there were plenty of players to share the blame but Malthouse seemed particularly concerned about Matthew Kreuzer, who ended the match with just three behinds.
"I think Kreuzer's kicked six points in two weeks, whether he's tightening right up ... a bit like a golf shot.
"You can practise all you like but you've really got to perform at the tournament.
"We've got to do that because we play in a competition that is generally unforgiving.
"There were three rushed behinds, so there were 17 points. Let's assume there were a couple of very hard ones but I'm guessing there's 10-12 (kickable shots).
"If you take the chances you distance [yourselves] from the opposition and sometimes that becomes enough mentally where you can say the game's dead.
"We're keeping people inside the game at the moment."
Carlton has the perfect opportunity to turn things around against Greater Western Sydney next week - and the Blues will need to have their kicking boots on to cope with the four-game run that follows against Essendon, Hawthorn, the Sydney Swans and Collingwood.
Malthouse also had a more left-field theory as to the reasons for the ball's errant movement when players took aim at the big sticks.
"It was a full moon; I'm not superstitious but ... that full moon has drawn that ball away from the goalposts like you can't believe," Malthouse said.
"We'll blame the moon. I'll blame the moon on everything at the moment. It does some strange things to strange people."
