Ratten was taking nothing away from the Bombers after they again outplayed his men at the MCG on Saturday night.
But the Blues coach was left to lament how, after two more-than-competitive weeks to start its AFL campaign, his side's work ethic dropped away in front of more than 70,000 fans.
Essendon led for most of the night and eventually won 13.17 (95) to 10.15 (75), extending its recent stranglehold over Ratten's side.
"Extremely disappointing," was Ratten's response when asked for his take on the night.
"To turn up and really deliver what we delivered it was actually quite embarrassing.
"I just thought we didn't roll our sleeves up really in the game.
"Sometimes your class players get the ball and get you back into the game for a bit but across the board I just didn't think we worked harder than the opposition and they just outplayed us."
Ratten said the Bombers had entered the match with a mindset to play one-on-one football and had achieved their mission.
His own players, he believed, not only didn't work as hard as the Bombers but weren't as polished as usual - perhaps as a result of Essendon's pressure.
"That's the challenge of AFL football," he said.
"It is a one-on-one battle, it's you versus your man and it's how hard you work, and I didn't think we worked hard enough.
"We'll go and have a look at the GPS numbers and all that and if they come up and say we worked harder than ever, I'll put them in the bin, I think.
"I just thought the comparison between the Brisbane game (last week) and this game were miles apart.
"I think we kicked the ball out of bounds on the full maybe nine times for the game, which is staggering.
"But I just thought our work-rate was below par, and that's what I was embarrassed about."
Carlton also struggled when going into attack. Ratten said the fact Tayte Pears had taken four marks inside the Blues' forward 50 by half time was indicative of his side's problems in attack.
The coach was pleased with the debut of midfielder Kane Lucas but admitted his team struggled for contributors.
"I don't think we won a battle on the day," Ratten said.
"[Eddie] Betts kicked 2.3 and he was the one that we thought might have got his nose in front, along with some of his efforts to chase and pressure as well.
"[Kade] Simpson, I thought, in patches really tried to change the game for us but, outside that, I thought we probably lost nearly every battle."
