Although the Blues trailed by 32 points early in the second quarter, they got to within two points just before half time.
In the finish, Carlton fell nine points short, giving St Kilda its 12th straight win.
"If you give the opposition five [goals] zip in about 15 minutes in a head start, against a team that's conceded on average about 58 points per game to the opposition… we made it pretty tough," Ratten said.
"They got their hands on the ball really early and their cleanness with the footy [was a feature]. At one stage, it was 39 possessions to 12, when we yelled out in the [coaches'] box, so it was all going one way.
"The opportunities that were created for their forwards outweighed ours by tenfold, so from that point, we just played catch up. We tinkered with the centre-bounce structures and personnel, so we got it back on even keel by half time, but it took a bit of work."
Ratten said the Carlton coaching hierarchy wondered what it had struck early in the match, before it readjusted to get right back in the match.
"Early on you think: 'What's going on at the start of the game?' So from a coaching point, we started asking the questions: 'What's going on? Another goal, what's going on?", he said.
"I thought we were pretty proactive and we tried to change it up a little bit and get on the front foot and we asked the players to get on the front foot and we thought we thought we could have a free hit – we had nothing to lose.
"That was our philosophy in the box too – let's have a go and let's see what could happen or eventuate and we kicked 3.5 in the last and blew an opportunity or a window right there in the end of the game."
Although he conceded there was still plenty of work to be done, Ratten acknowledged his team was improving and had shown good character in adversity.
"We spoke about how after today we'd actually see where we're at and how far we are off a legitimate team," Ratten said.
"They've played some fantastic footy, St Kilda, and they deserve to be where they are – they're got some great players and some dangerous players and to a man, they stick to their roles.
"They were a great challenge for our young group and I thought after the first 12 or 15 minutes, we stood up and we actually confronted and at times played better.
"But at end of the day, they actually just had a bit more skill and execution of the footy."
