Hawthorn was comprehensively beaten all over the ground by the Magpies but it was the Pies' defensive pressure that Hawthorn struggled to combat most, with a litany of errors in the Hawks back half.
This fact was underlined by the glaring difference in the tackle count between the two sides, with Collingwood registering 76 tackles to Hawthorn's 45.
It was a statistic not lost on Clarkson, who conceded Collingwood's attack on the ball carrier had been the main difference between the teams.
"There was fantastic pressure from a Collingwood side, they played a great brand of footy tonight and put us under enormous heat and full credit goes to them," Clarkson said.
"Tonight was an un-Hawthorn-like performance and we're disappointed with the way we played."
Compounding the woes for the Hawks was skipper Sam Mitchell and defender Xavier Ellis both finishing the match on the bench after copping heavy knocks.
Clarkson would not be drawn on the prognosis of the pair and said the club took some consolation in the fact the performance came without several of its top-line players.
"There were encouraging signs even though the scoreboard wasn't kind to us and we've got some pretty important players to come back in," he said.
"(Shaun) Burgoyne, (Brad) Sewell, (Lance) Franklin, (Liam) Shiels, they give us a bit of an opportunity to have more options for selection.
"Whether they all come back in (next week) we'll have to wait and see but we're looking forward to having a couple extra players to assess."
It's been a tough opening month for Hawthorn, which has now played three of last year's top four sides for just one win.
"We've got to stay philosophical; we've had a pretty tough program," Clarkson said.
"Other sides will have to go through that at some point too, so it's not an excuse, but it's no surprise after our games the Cats got knocked off (by Fremantle) and the Bulldogs got knocked off (by Brisbane) tonight.
"They are physically demanding games, all the good sides are playing aggressive brands of footy with physical running.
"We'll lick our wounds a little bit and get ready for the Roos next Sunday."
