The College of San Mateo football has a bye this week. That gives the Bulldogs plenty of time to digest their first loss of the season.

“Maybe being 4-1 is better than being 5-0,” CSM coach Bret Pollack said. “Because when you’re 5-0, sometimes your words are not heard. And all of a sudden when you’re 4-1, you say the same things and they’re listened to. …

“Sometime a loss can put things in perspective. It’s what you make out of it. I’ll let you know at the end of the year.”

The Bulldogs (4-1), who fell from No. 1 to No. 4 in the latest state poll, are coming off a 24-14 loss at American River College (5-0), which took over the top spot in the rankings.

CSM trailed 17-7 at halftime and found the end zone again with 3:44 left in the fourth quarter to mask the gap in the scoreboard.

Was there a turning point in the game?

“Yeah, the kickoff,” Pollack said. “The opening kickoff — from that point on we were outplayed and outcoached. They came ready to play. They came out swinging and we came out looking.”

One of the few positives was the five turnovers (2 INTs, 3 fumbles) the Bulldogs forced, though they gave the ball away four times.

CSM lost once last season, to the eventual state champion, and rebounded to win its final three games resoundingly 52-28, 54-20 and 75-9.

So will the pain of a loss change the players’ attitude?

“I don’t want a different reaction because we win or a different reaction because we lose,” Pollack said. “That means you’re not giving each game and each opponent its fair share, you’re picking and choosing.”

Things don’t get much easier after the bye week, with CSM opening up its conference slate by hosting No. 3 Santa Rosa (5-0) on Oct. 18 at College Heights Stadium.

“Am I surprised with where we are? No,” Pollack said. “Am I disappointed with where we are? No. Can we do better? Yes. And that’s the next step here against Santa Rosa.”

Four of the six teams in the newly formed Bay 6 Conference are ranked in the top 10 in the state, including No. 7 City College of San Francisco (4-1), which also lost to American River, and No. 9 Diablo Valley College (4-1).

Injury update: Quarterback Jeremy Cannon and running back Michael Latu began the season as the starters, but both were injured in Week 3. Both are listed as probable for next week’s game against Santa Rosa. Cannon suited up as the emergency starter at American River.

CSM practiced Monday through Wednesday as usual. Aside from some lifting Thursday, the players got the rest of the bye week off.

Even the coaches got some time to recharge.

“I’m frontloading a lot of our work and then we’ll be back on a much more aggressive Monday than usual,” Pollack said. “So we’ll catch up, but you need to get away from it for a little bit. Maybe I’ll watch some other coaches, there’s some good games on Saturday. I’ll watch some other coaches’ blood pressure rise and get mad and that kind of stuff.”