Before we begin, before we delve into the reasons Idaho State dropped a 35-14 decision to Northern Colorado on Saturday afternoon, let’s try an activity. Hold up a finger. Take a look at your fingernail. Really examine it. What stands out? Notice how… thin it is?

The Bengals’ margin for error might be thinner.

Idaho State did lots of things well in this loss, its fourth straight to start the season. Quarterback Hunter Hays threw for two scores, receiver Xavier Guillory reminded us why he is one of the conference’s best wide receivers and outside of several missed tackles, ISU’s defense turned in a decent showing. If you squint hard enough, you see reasons why the Bengals could have headed home with their first victory in nearly a calendar year.

But they will have to wait to do that because for the second straight week, they made a series of mistakes that cost them the game, cost them a chance at beating the only Big Sky team projected to finish as poorly as them. It reaffirms what has gradually zoomed into focus since the beginning of the season: Because of factors like inexperience and injuries, the Bengals’ margin for error is too thin for them to survive the blunders that keep surfacing.

“We’re not good enough to make mistakes and be able to come back from it,” Idaho State coach Charlie Ragle said. “We’ve done that two weeks in a row now, and that’s why we lost both these games. Plain and simple. The margins for this program and this team at this particular time are very, very thin for wins and losses.”

The list of mistakes reads like a chapter book. On their first drive of the second half, with the score tied 14-all, the Bengals drove down the field with remarkable ease. They looked poised to score. Then Hays threw an interception. ISU lost a chance to take the lead.

One series later, the Bengals moved the ball to the Bears’ 25, where they faced a fourth-and-3. They had a choice: Use Ian Hershey, a four-star high school kicker who is legitimately one of the team’s best players, to kick a 42-yard field goal — or go for it. ISU chose the latter. The Bengals ran Hays on a quarterback keeper. He needed three yards. He got two. Turnover on downs.

Reasonable minds can disagree about ISU’s decision to go for it. What’s certain is this: The play’s result became costly for the Bengals because the Bears turned it into a touchdown, taking a 21-14 lead.

“One hundred percent my call,” Ragle said of the decision to go for it on fourth down. “Kicking into a wind, it’s just… I’m playing to win, you know what I mean? We got the ball down their throat and we needed to get three yards right there to continue to drive. I wanted to score a touchdown and put the pressure on now.”

ISU kept making mistakes, though. When the Bengals got the ball back, their drive stalled in their own territory, so they sent Hershey out to punt. His teammates expected him to deliver a high, deep punt like he usually does. Heck, Hershey probably expected the same from himself. Instead, he produced a line-drive kick that got to return man Elijah Dotson much faster than anyone in white and orange laundry anticipated.

So Dotson fielded it, darted left toward the sideline, angled back toward the middle and into open space, where the only ISU player to beat was Hershey. Dotson outran him and jogged into the end zone. Northern Colorado took a 28-14 lead.

“We have plenty of guys in position to make tackles too, and we didn’t make tackles,” Ragle said. “So that’s as much on our coverage unit as it is on Ian. It’s an 11-man game, and he’s got his job to do and they’ve got their job to do. And unfortunately, (none) of the 11 guys did their job on that particular play.”

If only the errors stopped there. The one that sealed ISU’s fate came midway through the fourth quarter, with UNC holding a two-score lead — not an insurmountable deficit. But on first down near midfield, when Hays took a shotgun snap and faked a handoff, he fumbled. He ran down the ball and picked it back up, but when a UNC defender hit him, he lost it again. Bears linebacker Elijah Anderson-Taylor scooped it up and ran into the end zone, marking the second straight week Hays lost a fumble that turned into a touchdown.

“I think Hunter was just trying to do too much,” Ragle said. “He should have handed that ball off. It’s a six-man box and we’re gonna get some considerable yards if he hands it off and runs it. He pulls it and just tries to do too much. Then he fumbles it and again, just like that, it’s 35-14. That was pretty much the ballgame.”

So now the Bengals become the frog in Frogger, trying to dodge cars hurtling their way. Next week, Idaho State hosts Montana, a conference power that made last year’s FCS playoffs. The week after that, ISU visits Montana State, another conference titan that made last year’s national title game.

Few will expect the Bengals to win those, but if they’re going to do it, they will need to find ways to avoid making these mistakes. How do they do that? They can certainly work on punt returns, especially with the former special teams coordinator Ragle at the helm, but what about the others? Practice the play called Don’t Fumble? Whatever they do, they will need to get creative. Fingernails are pretty thin.

Game notes• In the middle of the fourth quarter, Hays exited the game and yielded to third-stringer Sagan Gronauer. That’s because Hays took a hit that knocked him out of the game. “That’s what I think it is,” Ragle said, “but I don’t know that for a fact.”

• ISU defensive lineman Tyler Gonzalez missed this game with a leg injury. The Bengals are hoping to get him back next week. “It’s kinda week-to-week,” Ragle said, “but he could be back as early as this coming week against Montana.”