The article below originally appeared in the San Mateo Daily Journal and is being reprinted with permission.

For the second time in two years, the College of San Mateo football team suffered its first loss of the season to Foothill, which beat the Bulldogs 31-28 Saturday.

Last year, the Bulldogs (1-1 NorCal Conference, 6-1 overall) rebounded from a 28-27 loss to the Owls to finish tied for the NorCal Conference championship and ended up advancing to the state championship game.

There is a long way to go before post-season plans are discussed and CSM coach Bret Pollack is only focused on this week’s opponent — City College of San Francisco.

Against Foothill, two glaring errors helped the Owls pull out the last-minute victory. One was a roughing the punter call against CSM that gave Foothill a first down, a drive on which the Owls scored. The other was a face-mask penalty that negated a CSM fumble recovery. Foothill took advantage of that call to score the go-ahead touchdown with about a minute to play.

Pollack, however, would not blame the loss on those plays.

“There are the [mistakes] people see that are more obvious,” Pollack said. “But there are ones within the game people don’t see.”

More important than the penalties, in Pollack’s mind, was the overall play of the team. He cited the play of the secondary as well as a lack of physical play on offense that had more to do with the loss than in-game mistakes.

“Defensively, we had some blown assignments and on offense, we didn’t play physical,” Pollack said. “As the game went on, we played less physical.”

Pollack pointed to a statistic which most people don’t even look, and, is not even really kept: offensive line knock downs of defensive players. Last week against Santa Rosa, the CSM offensive line had a record 66 knock downs. The Bulldogs have averaged 48. Against Foothill, they had 27.

The Bulldogs were also missing two key contributors — quarterback Julian Bernard and running back Seta Pohahau. Bernard was injured during the Santa Rosa game while Pohahau played only a handful of plays in the third quarter. Pollack said Pohahau told him he wasn’t feeling good.

But Pollack wasn’t using those absences as excuses, either. The way CSM runs its program, most starting spots are up for grabs every week and those players who perform the best during the practice week see a bulk of the playing time on Saturdays.

“Our backups are good enough to get into games and win,” Pollack said.

Besides, the offense didn’t struggle from a production standpoint. Twenty-eight points and 422 yards of offense is nothing at which to scoff.

“It wasn’t like it was a complete disaster,” Pollack said.

In fact, Pollack believes the loss could catapult the Bulldogs to bigger and better things with four games left in the regular season.

“You need games like this to get you out of your comfort zone,” Pollack said. “Sometimes (agonizing losses) are needed.”

Up next: At City College of San Francisco, 1 p.m. Saturday

Last year, the Bulldogs knocked off the Rams, 30-24, for the first time since 1988. It also handed CCSF its first loss of the season. That win gave the Bulldogs the confidence to run the table and finish the season in the state championship game.

Not much has changed this season. The Rams are one of two teams still undefeated this year and the only Northern California team with an unblemished record. The Rams were tested last week, however, pulling out a 21-17 win over Laney of Oakland.

There is not a lot of change in the way the Rams go about their business, either. A spread-option offense, the Rams are, once again, one of the top offensive teams in California. Quarterback Steele Jantz is the trigger man for the Rams’ offense and he is currently ranked third in Northern California, averaging 272 yards passing per game and No. 1 in passer efficiency.

“He runs well and extends plays,” Pollack said of Jantz.

Pollack, however, is not real concerned with what the Rams do. He’ll focus on what his team does well and go from there.

“We know each other so well,” Pollack said. “No one is going to surprise anyone.”