Last year's preliminary finalists pushed likely top-four club Hawthorn all the way last Saturday night, only to succumb by 11 points.
While the club sits 12th on the AFL ladder with just two wins next to its name, Sloane said the signs were encouraging.
He insisted that if the Crows could manage consistent football for the duration of the regular season, they would seal a finals berth.
"We have to [win] something like 10 of the next 16 games, which I think we're capable of doing and we know that," Sloane said.
"We've got to get back to playing that consistent football and we need everyone to contribute.
"We've got to be clean with our possessions as well because we definitely burnt the ball a lot on the weekend, we lacked a bit of poise going forward – we really need to lift.
"If we can tidy up on a few key areas, we'll definitely be back to where we were at last year."
Sloane also called on his teammates to take individual responsibility for their own performances in the wake of the narrow loss.
Patrick Dangerfield was electric against the Hawks, picking up 35 disposals and booting two goals, but Sloane said too much was left to too few.
"Your performance is up to you ... you've got to take a lot of ownership of your own performance, pride in your own performance," he said.
"We're definitely at our best when we've got multiple guys playing well not just relying on (Patrick) Dangerfield or Scotty Thompson or certain guys."
Adelaide's tackling continues to be a major area of concern for coach Brenton Sanderson.
The Crows won the tackle count for the second week in a row on Saturday night but Sanderson conceded the number of tackles that Hawthorn players were able to break made the statistic deceptive.
Sloane described the Hawks as the tackling "benchmark" of the AFL and said he and his teammates needed to match their level.
"They definitely tested us out a lot, but we've got to be much harder at getting in closer," he said.
"We can learn something from them … because at the moment we seem to get wrapped up a lot whereas they probably keep the ball moving and it does create scoring opportunities."
Harry Thring is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry.
