Juve missed the chance to go nine points clear of Roma atop the table after Arturo Vidal missed a penalty eight minutes from the end at the Stadio Dino Manuzzi on Sunday.
Goals from Alvaro Morata and Claudio Marchisio cancelled out Milan Djuric's opener and gave the Italian champions a first-half lead.
Cesena rallied after the interval and enjoyed periods of control before Franco Brienza restored parity with 20 minutes remaining.
Juve were seemingly set to steal the points eight minutes from the end when Stefano Lucchini handled the ball inside the area, though Vidal missed the target completely to cap a disappointing outing for the visitors.
"The distance at the top remains unchanged and frankly that's what we were hoping for," Buffon told Sky Sport Italia.
"However, it's obvious to admit that after seeing Roma's result we had hoped for more. It was a very unsatisfactory performance, especially the opening 20 minutes in which we allowed chances that a team like ours should not permit.
"With all due respect for Cesena, who played a great game tonight, it is our fault if we failed to get all three points.
"The attitude was wrong and in these situations the blame is above all down to the captain. It is my job to keep the players fired up and focused both in the locker room and on the pitch. Evidently I failed in that duty tonight."
Buffon added: "Some of our less experienced players need to understand that nobody will give us the Scudetto.
"We have to earn it each and every weekend. In fact, because we are Juventus, we have to win with a 15-point margin before people will give us credit for our success.
"We cannot go around throwing away opportunities like this. The Roma result probably made us think this was going to be easy, but a team like ours cannot allow itself to be influenced by other scorelines."
