It was fitting Essendon wore mock seatbelts, as they suffered the biggest crash of their AFL season, a 98-point loss to a rampant Collingwood at the MCG on Friday night.

The top-placed Magpies notched their eighth straight win and tightened their grip on the minor premiership with the 24.18 (162) to 10.4 (64) belting.

But while recent wins against St Kilda in round 16 and Geelong last weekend were significant breakthroughs, this was simply a mismatch.

The AFL's form team excelled in every department - they won much more of the ball, but still comfortably out-tackled the Bombers, used the ball far more precisely and had by far the most dangerous forward targets.

Travis Cloke starred with 5.5 and 16 marks, while gun midfielders Scott Pendlebury and Dane Swan continued their superb seasons and first-year player Jarryd Blair staked another claim to play finals with 28 touches and two goals.

The Bombers - wearing one-off guernseys with seatbelt-style sashes for a road safety campaign - looked like a team waiting for the season to end.

There was none of the intensity that might have been expected in response to a 76-point thrashing from another traditional rival, Carlton, last weekend, with the meek loss sure to fire renewed speculation about coach Matthew Knights' future.

They have now had two of their three biggest losses of the year back-to-back, with Friday night's defeat their largest.

They wilted in the face of Collingwood's consistent pressure, frequent turnovers creating easy Magpies ball movement, which made the game often look like a training drill, while Essendon's defence never looked like halting the goal flood.

After the Bombers kicked two of the first three goals, Collingwood piled on the next 7.2 to lead by 38 points late in the first term.

The procession continued with 5.1 to nothing to start the second quarter, pushing the margin to 63 points.

It was whittled back to 59 at halftime, but there was no hint of a second half fightback, the lead stretching to 87 at the last change, then blowing out further.

Bombers captain Jobe Watson worked hard in the packs, dishing out 28 handballs among 30 touches, but his influence was swamped by Collingwood's midfield depth.

The Bombers will be without David Zaharakis for their remaining two games with knee ligament damage.

Collingwood ruckman Darren Jolly went off the ground after copping a knock to the shin late in the match, but coach Mick Malthouse said he was not injured.

Malthouse said he would not flirt with form by resting Jolly, although he still hoped for an opportunity to give 199-game big man Josh Fraser, who has not been selected since round 12, a 200th game.

He said Blair, recalled after a week out, impressed.

"He hasn't done his (selection) chances any harm by a pretty solid performance." But he said another recalled player, forward Paul Medhurst, clearly struggled with the pace after a long VFL stint.

Essendon coach Matthew Knights said the Bombers fielded a young side, that was clearly outclassed in every aspect by "awesome" opposition.

"The lesson from tonight is just to watch a well-oiled machine who are just super-fit, super-strong ... to see their attributes as a football team and the way they go about it first-hand for our players, in a sadistic sort of sense, is a good lesson."

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