LOGAN, Utah — Semantics, really.

Not long after Colorado State coach Mike Bobo said his team played undisciplined in the 33-18 loss to Utah State to open Mountain West play, some of the players weren’t in agreement, yet they really were.

“It’s not that we’re not disciplined, it’s just we’ve got to pay attention to details,” cornerback DeAndre Elliott said after the Rams slipped to 2-3 on the season. “The details are what hurts, the little details are what matters, and that’s what hurt us today.

“We’ve just got to have more attention to details. I just can’t say that too many times. As long as we get the details down, we’ll be great.”

Taking care of details requires discipline, and every team makes mistakes. The good ones find a way to minimize them; great teams can overcome them. Five games into the 2015 season, Colorado State is a squad making too many mistakes and hasn’t proven to be consistent enough yet or play with the maturity to be able to put them in the rearview mirror.

For the fourth time in five games, CSU lost the turnover battle, losing two fumbles and throwing an interception on the last offensive snap of the contest. Saturday’s game was the third this year where the Rams’ defense didn’t create a takeaway.

Just as concerning are the flags, of which the Rams collected 12 for 110 yards in the loss. Colorado State is now tied for 115th in the nation averaging nine flags a game, sitting 11th with those accounting for 78.8 yards per game.

“You’ve got to be be disciplined,” Bobo said. “We’ve gotta go back and look at the film and see what’s causing those penalties and find a way to correct them. You can’t put yourself in that situation, have a stop, get a penalty, get a drive going, get multiple penalties in a row that puts you behind the chains that much.”

Trailing 17-10 at half, the Rams had yet to turn the ball over and were only flagged four times, two of them defensive infractions that enabled the Aggies to extend drives, but no points came of them. That all changed in the second half.

On the second play after lightning in the area delayed the beginning of the third quarter, CSU quarterback Nick Stevens was sacked, fumbled and the Aggies recovered on the CSU 8. The defense held the Aggies to a field goal.

Later in the quarter, the Rams had an offensive holding call followed by offsides, leading to first-and-25. A defensive personal foul in the frame would allow USU to extend a drive that led to a field goal.

In the fourth, right after Colorado State’s offense found some life and the defense picked up a stop, the Rams had two straight false starts, making it first-and-20, then on third-and-11 from the CSU 24, a holding call erased a Stevens scramble for a first down.

Details or discipline, there’s a lack of it for the Rams right now.

“I think part of that is going into playing that complete game, 60 minutes,” Stevens said. “It’s not little details all the times, it’s one person here and there and that’s what kills our drives and defense. For the most part, I think we did a good job taking care of those, but we take a play off and that’s what springs a long run or we do something on offense we’re not supposed to.”

Defensively, the Rams allowed a second straight read-option team with speed sweep and quarterback run elements to gash them, with Kent Myers rushing for 191 of the team’s 298 yards in his first start this season at quarterback.

Offensively, the Rams had trouble keeping Kyler Fackrell from invading Stevens’ personal space. The sophomore quarterback’s numbers at the end weren’t all that pretty, completing 21 of his 46 passes for 252 yards and one score. He flat-out missed a few throws, but he also spent most of the game sidestepping Fackrell, who had one sack and six other quarterback hurries. The Aggies had three sacks in the game, two on successive plays to end the first half.

All of it, in Bobo’s eyes, is not being able to execute the devised game plan, and he took the blame for not having his team ready in that regard after the loss.

Since the season started, the Bobo and his players have stated they feel they are a good team. That’s not showing up on Saturday’s, and if fixes aren’t made, even Bobo knows it’s likely to get worse before it gets better with Boise State coming to town.

The Broncos’ offense has the same read-option elements, though with true freshman Brett Rypien throwing well and playing in place of the injured Ryan Finley, BSU has kept him mostly out of the run game. On the other side, it’s a defense that has scored more points (16) than it has allowed (14) in the past three games.

“It’s disappointing,” Bobo said. “Not real happy about the performance, but at the end of the day we’ve got go back to work on Monday because we have one of the top teams in the country coming into town.”

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