The Lions were dominant, winning by 73 points, at one stage going on a run of 14 consecutive goals as they outran and outclassed the Suns on their home ground.
Brisbane's night was not all smiles though, with coach Chris Fagan confirming injuries to defenders Darcy Gardiner (shoulder) and Ryan Lester (hamstring) would keep them out of Friday night's blockbuster against Richmond.
It was a horror show for Gold Coast, with Dew conceding it had plenty of thinking to do ahead of an away trip to Geelong next Saturday.
"We let ourselves down," Dew said.
"Definitely would have lost some trust within the competition, our supporters.
"We have to take it personal, we failed to compete.
"We would have lost trust, no doubt.
"Some of the gains that were there will now get questioned, so we have to front up and take it on the chin and look to this week.
"There’s two choices, we can fall away between now and the bye and reset, or we can get back on track immediately."
The Suns trailed by six points at quarter-time, 29 at the half and then completely fell away when conceding eight unanswered goals in an "unacceptable" third.
They repeatedly gave up uncontested marks inside their own defensive 50 – often to long entries that should have presented time to compete – and were beaten around the contest.
Eleven players registered just one tackle or less.
To rub salt into Gold Coast's wound, Jarryd Lyons – the man it delisted at the end of 2018 – was named the Marcus Ashcroft medallist as the best player on ground.
Fagan was pleased with his team's effort, although he had no update on the injuries to Lester and Gardiner.
"I don't know the extent of either yet, but I wouldn't think they'd be available next week," he said.
"’Froggy’ (Lester), it was unfortunate for him in his 150th that he didn't play for very long, but that performance tonight was inspired by him because he's a very popular teammate.
"It was a big motivation for us tonight and it's a little bit unfortunate that he wasn't able to participate a little bit more in it."
"Darcy we'll just have to wait and see. Didn't look good did it?"
