The math is pretty simple for Stanford as it enters the final month of the season: Win two of the final four games and become bowl eligible. Anything less than that and the Cardinal will be destined to miss the postseason for the first time since 2008.

Except that head coach David Shaw doesn’t want his team looking at it that way. Quite the contrary: Shaw prefers Stanford look no further than Saturday’s game in Colorado.

“I said it about three games ago: I’m not even thinking about bowl games,” Shaw said Wednesday. “Our charge every week is to play our best football. We’re chasing that great game where you walk out of the stadium saying, ‘Guys, that was our best game.’ That’s what we want. The bowl-game stuff will happen however it happens, but our focus is just on what happens on game day.”

The Cardinal have done well with that type of attitude, having won three of their past four after a 1-3 start. That has happened despite a roster that has been thinned by injuries, including at quarterback.

K.J. Costello returned after a three-game absence because of a thumb injury and helped key a 41-31 win against Arizona. Now Stanford, coming off its second bye week, takes on a Colorado team that has lost five straight.

The Cardinal also hope to have backup quarterback Davis Mills available. Mills, who passed for 890 yards and five touchdowns in Costello’s absence, has been hobbled by a left leg injury.

“Davis has practiced more, and we’ll see how he feels after today to see if he’s available,” Shaw said. “We’ll bring him on the trip.”

With the exception of the regular-season finale against No. 15 Notre Dame (6-2), Stanford has a mostly favorable schedule down the stretch. Following Saturday’s game against Colorado (3-6, 1-5 Pac-12), the Cardinal play at Washington State (4-4, 1-4), then host Cal (4-4, 1-4) in the Big Game.

Wins against two of those teams will extend Stanford’s 10-year run of bowl games, a reality that safety Malik Antoine and his teammates are fully aware of in spite of Shaw’s wishes.

“For us, you have to have that end goal, but we know that we’re our best when we just play one game at a time,” Antoine said. “In the beginning of the year, we had this big vision of the Rose Bowl, the Pac-12 championship.

“When those goals kind of diminish, you just have to focus in on the little things. For us, that’s coming out here and having a great practice and being 1-0 on Saturday versus Colorado. We kind of have bowl games in the back of our mind, but the main, main focus is winning this next game.”

A two-year starter, Antoine said he actually has had a better time playing this season than at any other time. That’s saying something, considering the Cardinal won 28 games during Antoine’s first three seasons on the Farm.

“I tell people this is my favorite season out here, which is crazy to say,” Antoine said. “You learn a lot about yourself. What I’ve learned is our guys fight, whether we’re winning or we’re losing.

“Starting off the season 1-3, a lot of teams would throw the towel in and just cruise through the rest of the year. But these guys, we just come every day energetic and ready to practice. Our main goal is reaching our potential by December.”

Michael Wagaman is a freelance writer.