PORT Adelaide great Kane Cornes has concerns Carlton is no better than a bottom-six team as the Blues look ahead to a pivotal five weeks that will make or break their season.

Michael Voss' side dropped to eighth spot after its 26-point loss to Brisbane on Friday night, with 85 of the Lions' 100 points coming from Carlton turnovers.

Speaking on AFL.com.au's The Round So Far, Cornes highlighted several Carlton turnovers that led to Brisbane goals, labelling some errors "lazy" and "arrogant" and saying the Blues failed to make "pretty basic decisions" at key moments of the game.

With matches against the Western Bulldogs, Collingwood, Sydney, Melbourne and Essendon to come in the next five weeks, Cornes says the Blues' finals hopes could be over soon unless they can quickly adjust their style of play.

"I haven't seen a team butcher the ball as badly as this this year," he said.

"I think this is the biggest story out of round eight, the demise of Carlton. While the win-loss record doesn't look dire, even when they were undefeated, you questioned the way they were going about it.

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"They've lost their real strength from stoppage, and who in their side other than (Adam) Saad ... are good ball users and are going to hurt you when they have the footy in their hands?

"And it's a real shame because they've got two of the biggest key forwards in their prime going to waste.

"I've got real fears that they're a bottom six team."

While defender Saad had 21 touches on Friday night, his influence was largely quelled by a concerted defensive effort from Brisbane's forwards, who went with the Blues runner to limit his ability to launch attacking surges inside 50.

Brownlow medallist Patrick Cripps was also outmatched by Lions midfielder Josh Dunkley, who limited the Blues skipper to just 17 disposals to go with 33 of his own in a best-on-ground display.

It was the eighth time since 2021 that Cripps has been held to less than 20 disposals, with the Blues winning just one of those games.

Cornes says Carlton's response needs to be led by its skipper, starting with Saturday night's showdown with Marcus Bontempelli and the in-form Bulldogs.

"Cripps has got to work on this because he's been exposed three times this year," Cornes said.

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"(Jordan) Dawson got him against Adelaide, (Jack) Steele got him in the second half against St Kilda and now Dunkley has got him.

"There is a belief amongst the competition when you play Carlton that if you can stop Cripps, you can stop Carlton winning the game."