It’s time to stop with the somewhat popular party line that the University of Hawaii football program is showing improvement from last year. It was true for a while earlier this season, but that is no longer the case. The scores are closer but the losses are worse than blowouts in some ways.

From the sideline late in Saturday’s 28-21 loss to a barely interested San Diego State team, many of the Rainbow Warriors looked like dispassionate observers rather than engaged participants. No one comparing notes, no one firing up teammates, no one in anyone’s face.

They continued to play hard, but it seemed as though they knew what the outcome would be … again. Burnout is understandable to some degree, especially when you’ve lost so many games — it’s up to 10 now.

Understandable, but not acceptable to the fans who pay money and invest their Saturday nights to watch them underachieve.

Is there effort? Yes. Is there consistency and focus? Far from enough.

One of the first things you learn in Pop Warner is to play through the whistle. The Rainbow Warriors on the field for the Aztecs’ first touchdown either forgot that lesson or never learned it … they let their guard down when flagged for offsides, but the play was still on and San Diego State tied the score on a 56-yard touchdown pass. It was as if they were hypnotized a split-second, just long enough for the Aztecs to exploit it.

It’s a literal example of waiting for someone else to do something.

You can blame it on the coaches or you can blame it on the players themselves. It really doesn’t matter.

Joey Iosefa, John Hardy-Tuliau and Scott Harding were among the few consistently making big plays Saturday, plays that should’ve been inspirational to their teammates. But for whatever reason, this group doesn’t feed off of its successes the way winning teams do.

It’s almost become routine that a boon in field position is negated by a dumb penalty, offsides being the most common.

They haven’t coughed it up from the red zone for an opponent defensive TD in two games now, so maybe that’s a sign of improvement. Take it where you can get it.

A friend texted me minutes after the game, with the message of, "Hawaii found a way to lose."

Indeed.

The Rainbow Warriors won the turnover battle 4-2. They were significantly better than the opponents on third down, for a change. They were even a little bit better in penalty yardage.

UH did a lot of the things you need to do to win a football game Saturday. But the Rainbow Warriors are still making too many inexcusable, unforced mistakes and they fell apart at the end, on offense and defense, at home, against a mediocre team.

You can blame whoever you want. There are plenty of easy targets, including the head coach whose forte was supposed to be offense and yet in overtime netted minus-10 yards largely because of play calls, not execution.

The people who need to have their fill of it in order to effect a change in command — the big boosters — haven’t gotten there yet. And the way Norm Chow’s contract was designed was for at least a three-year plan. We all knew that from the beginning.

None of it makes 0-10 any easier to swallow.