DAVID Teague took a moment mid-match on Saturday to soak in the pro-Carlton crowd's reaction to the Blues' triumphant fightback over Brisbane.

After a trying week the Blues were able to come away with their second win of the season, trumping the Lions by 15 points after trailing by 37 in the second quarter. 

Teague, Carlton's caretaker coach, joked afterwards the slow start was "probably not part of the plan" and made an effort to deflect credit from himself onto his players.

"I just enjoyed watching the guys apply their trade and back themselves in," he told reporters.

"Early on, it didn't look great – they were making errors – but it was what I asked them, it was my fault. 

"I worried about them going too aggressive, but to their credit, halfway through the second quarter, they composed themselves out there.

"It's very hard to get messages out there, but they composed themselves and their resilience just to keep playing the way we wanted to play – I'm really proud of them."

Teague has set a clear agenda publicly, starting with his pre-match media conference on Friday, when he spoke about releasing the shackles, instilling belief in his players and getting them playing to their strengths. 

He even set a task for his captain Patrick Cripps, who produced one of the greatest performances of his career with 38 disposals, eight clearances and four goals.

Cripps' solo effort came a week after he won only 11 possessions in the loss to Essendon that ultimately cost Bolton his job. 

"He's a great player. What I can say is today he probably went back to just being the best footballer he can be," Teague said. 

"As a captain, sometimes you take the burden on of the team performance, and I challenged him today just to be the best footballer he can be.

"If he leads from the front with his football, then I think everything else will take care of it and he did that again today."

The praise came thick and fast from Teague for his players.

Ed Curnow's effort to keep Lachie Neale to just six disposals in the second half. Lachie Plowman's shutdown role on Charlie Cameron. 

Charlie Curnow and Caleb Marchbank were "outstanding", while 2015 No.1 draft pick Jacob Weitering was another excellent contributor in defence.

"They need belief in themselves as individuals, and they need belief in our system, our structures and each other," Teague said.

"The win will give them belief, playing well will give them belief, but to do it from behind, shows that if they just stick to the plan, the belief will grow. 

"We have a great challenge, we have the Bulldogs next week now, and as a group that hasn't won a lot, we've got to set ourselves really quickly to be ready.

"We think we're only going to get better from here on in and we'll need to, because the Bulldogs are a pretty solid team."

Teague was unsure about the severity of Lochie O'Brien's leg injury, joking again that it was "probably one of my growth areas to bring that information to these meetings". 

As for those Blues fans ready to sign him up as the long-term coach, they will have to wait.

"I do harbour desires to be a senior coach but when is probably the question," he said. 

"What I do have right now is an opportunity to learn where my growth areas are, where my strengths are, and to continue to work on them.

"I've got 12 weeks to find out where I'm at and I'm excited by it. To be honest, my energy right now is probably just thinking in the shorter term.

"I haven't set too many long-term goals right now, it's about getting the players to believe and getting them to play like they did today and giving them confidence to be themselves."