The Lions beat Collingwood last week after storming home at the Gabba but failed to replicate the result against North Melbourne on Saturday night when they went down by a point after reeling in a 44-point deficit.
The captain said there was no merit in putting together strong second halves after allowing sides to build hefty leads.
"Character is holding it together over four quarters and we're not doing that. That's the reality of it," he told afl.com.au.
"It's bloody disappointing. We showed in the second half what we're capable of and anyway, we still lost the game.
"I don't think we can keep talking about these comebacks. At the end of the day, we didn't get the four points.
"It really hurts our season but we've just got to come back next week and concentrate for the whole 120 minutes."
Brown echoed coach Michael Voss' sentiments about the Lions being unable to respond once sides get on a roll.
"We didn't deserve to win the game of footy, and that's been a big problem for us over the last 18 months - our bad 20-minute patches that cost us games," he said.
"We're probably one of the best come-from-behind sides in the competition over the past 18 months but there's only one reason for that - because we get ourselves in that situation.
"If we want to be a top four side, that's got to be our next step.
"It's something we've spoken about and something we're still failing to do on the field."
Travis Johnstone was a shining light for the Lions on Saturday night with 38 touches, his second positive performance in a row after being omitted for rounds eight and nine.
Brown said he was pleased with Johnstone's attitude over the last month.
"He's done well. He's found a real niche back there and he's had a couple of good weeks," he said.
"He's come in and grabbed his opportunity.
"He's pretty crucial to getting the ball moving off half back. Josh Drummond has been a big loss and now probably Ash McGrath.
"He's going to be critical to our ball movement and setting up play for us."
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