FORT COLLINS — The spurts are maddening.

There have been good starts by Colorado State, only to go flat thereafter. It’s a statement that stands true for both sides of the ball in what has been a 3-4 start to the football season.

In the season opener, nothing went right. Against Northern Colorado, an FCS team, most all went according to plan.

In the past three weeks, the offense has scored early, and sometimes late. The middle has been a gigantic sand trap where the Rams get bogged down. Defensively, the Rams can shut down team in one half, then go cold the other.

“That’s the case every week, and it’s true,” quarterback Nick Stevens said after the 28-23 loss to Boise State. “I personally truly believe if we could play a full game — not be perfect — but eliminate some of the mistakes we’re causing, we could play with any team in the Mountain West. We played with No. 15-ranked Boise and definitely didn’t play our best game.

“I guess that give us confidence. We didn’t play perfect but we were still in the game. you don’t have to play perfect against everybody.”

The Rams were far from their best, but they get a fresh chance Saturday at UNLV (3:30 p.m.; ROOT SPORTS).

Defensively, the Rams stumped the Broncos on five straight drives to open, then gave up four touchdowns in succession.

After kicking a field goal on the first drive of the game, Colorado State didn’t dent the scoreboard again until there were just 5 minutes in the game. Then the Rams scored 20 points in a matter of 1:25 thanks to recovering two onside kicks.

“It’s the little things. That’s all it comes down to is the little tiny details,” CSU linebacker Kevin Davis said. “They really take care of a game for you.”

In short, the Rams have been a team of extremes, Saturday’s third quarter the harshest example yet.

“That was frustrating. You take that two or three series out of the football game, and they played well, and they should have played well,” CSU offensive coordinator Will Friend said. “I’m frustrated. I’m sure they are too. It’s not effort; I know a lot of times you think it’s effort, and I’ll be the first to say. I usually raise hell about effort and all that stuff, but it hasn’t been effort. It’s been doing the little things. In the games we’ve won and the games that we’ve lost, we’ve had those points. You’re not going to score every drive, but heck, you’d like to get a couple of first downs that can change the field position.”

Friend said the players will hear about it all. The lack of picking up third downs (just three of 14) and giving up too many (nine of 16 for Boise State). And dropped passes. And making the wrong shifts on defense. And not filling gaps. Coaching wise, it’s getting greedy at times instead of sticking to the plan.

Physically, head coach Mike Bobo thinks the Rams have the talent to be a better team. Mentally and in execution, he stated again, they are what the record states, and that’s a 3-4 squad, just 1-2 in Mountain West play. Potential doesn’t count.

Sometimes, the other team will win a one-on-one battle. It happens, and Bobo said the Rams just aren’t staking claim to enough of those. But they can, and they don’t have to be huge plays

Sometimes moving the chains is enough.

“It’s a simple execution assignment or doing your job. That’s making a play,” he said. “Sometimes making a play can turn into a big play like (Michael) Gallup catching the ball in the hole and the safety over-running it. His job is to catch it and convert the route. They over-ran the play, now we score. If he catches the shallow on third-and-2, the guy’s probably going to tackle him, but it’s going to be a first down. All of those are making plays.”

Conference statement — Once again, Bobo was having nothing to do with this conversation.

“The conference issued a statement, and that’s about all I’ve gotta say about it,” Bobo said.

It appeared, at least on the third-down review, the Rams lost 10-12 seconds in time. On fourth down, no flag was thrown for an illegal forward lateral, but during play review, the league can assess one, which it did. In the statement, they mention two. It is the same scenario as last year’s Miami-Duke game, when illegal forward laterals were not called upon play review, leading to the suspension of the officiating crew.

Many talents — Hayden Hunt did what he does best, and that’s average 43.9 yards per punt on his seven attempts Saturday, with four going inside the 20 with no touchbacks, leading to a net of 42.3. Then he also added two successful onside kicks, leading to his selection as the Ray Guy Award punter of the week.

This season, the senior has also successfully converted fakes via the pass and running the ball.

“I’ve said since last year that Hayden is really a weapon for us, because he can flip the field. We try to use it as much as possible as many times as we’re punting right now,” Bobo said sarcastically.

Bobo said the team normally practices two versions of the onside kick on Friday’s, but Hunt was so successful with his, they skipped the other. Hunt ranks 18th nationally with his 44.5 average; the team ranks 19th with a net of 41.3.

Mike Brohard: 970-635-3633, mbrohard@reporter-herald.com and twitter.com/mbrohard