Ratten was pleased with the consistency and across the board effort he got from his side against the Pies last week, but he says the Blues must back that up in Saturday's road clash with the Crows to be taken seriously as a finals contender.
"It's been an interesting start for us with the inconsistency of winning and losing games. We've been up and down," Ratten said from Visy Park on Wednesday.
"We've got the opportunity and we need to win two and three games [running]. That's what the good teams do, they get back to back victories and win their two or three games in a row and then they might have a slip up or keep going.
"That's where we need to go – we need to get a few games and a few victories in a row to get some momentum up and not get this stop-start thing that we've had through the start of the season."
That will be no easy task in Adelaide where Carlton has not defeated the Crows since round 11 of 2004 when Brendan Fevola booted a late goal to seal a four-point win that proved to be Gary Ayres' last at the helm of the club.
Fevola is likely to be more involved in the play this week after playing a decoy role against the Pies, but Ratten said none of his players was above playing the dummy role if it helped the team.
"All great players want to get their hands on the footy, but to play a team role at certain times is very important," he said.
"It's all about the four points and how we do it will change week to week. At times I think it's important even for Chris [Judd] to go and play on a player and take himself out of the game.
"It allows someone else to stand up and deliver in that part of the game and that's important for the growth of the group."
Ratten is mulling over one or two possible changes to the team that defeated Collingwood with centre half-forward Simon Wiggins, who was a late withdrawal from that side with hamstring tightness, fit and pushing for reinstatement.
Eddie Betts will lead the team out onto AAMI Stadium as part of Indigenous Round celebrations with the game also significant for local fan favourite Andrew McLeod who will surpass Mark Ricciuto as the Crows' games record holder.
Ratten took the opportunity to express his sympathy for counterpart Terry Wallace after it was incorrectly reported that he had been sacked by Richmond on Tuesday.
"I feel pretty sorry for Terry and his family to get put through something like that when it hasn't even been put out by the club," he said. "I think it's very hard on an individual.
"It would be good to make sure the information is spot-on before we actually bring out the big-hitting news that could actually hurt people behind the scenes."
