ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The accomplishment wasn’t lost on the players, but they are reacting to it much differently this time around.

Not that becoming bowl eligible is old hat for Colorado State, even if the 27-24 victory Friday against New Mexico marked the fifth consecutive season the program has qualified for the postseason.

It’s just not what they targeted, at least not as the main goal.

“That’s what I was just talking about with Coach (Alvis) Whitted, who has been here six years, since the days before CSU was a constantly bowl eligible team,” CSU running back Izzy Matthews said. “We were just talking about how much this program has changed and the expectations have changed. You know, that year they finished 6-6 to go to the New Mexico Bowl like, you see the videos from the locker room, the team is excited. Like, they’re ready to go.

“This year, we’re 6-2, but our focus and our mission is far ahead. Bowl eligible is awesome; we’re guarantee another game. But at the end of the day we haven’t accomplished what we wanted to.”

Being bowl eligible this early in the season is sort of new for the Rams. They didn’t win No. 6 last year until the 11th week, same as 2015. This time around, they’ll spend the final four weeks fighting for something grander.

The Rams entered the season shooting to represent the Mountain Division of the Mountain West in the conference championship game. Not only that, but also with the intention of being crowned.

After winning the first two conference contests by controlling games, the Rams have had to be nimble on their feet the past two outings. Nevada challenged them. New Mexico definitely did so Friday.

The Lobos dared the Rams to throw, and Nick Stevens just wasn’t as sharp in his connections with Michael Gallup, who had beaten the Lobo secondary more than once. It just didn’t happen.

“We’re going to do just like we did last week,” CSU coach Mike Bobo said. “We’re going to regroup, we’re going to get healthy, we’re going to get a plan and we’re going to get ready to play Saturday against Air Force.”

Matthews bullied his way to 116-yards and a score against a stacked box, and Dalyn Dawkins added 71 on a night he wasn’t 100 percent healthy as the team rushed for 180 yards.

The Rams were still more than 100 yards shy of their total offense average.

“I’d definitely say it’s a testament to our team. It wasn’t a game where we had to rely on Michael Gallup or had to rely on Nick Stevens,” Matthews said. “It showed when that wasn’t working, we had other things to go to. It was all thanks to the linemen up front and Nick Stevens’ poise, not only as a quarterback but as a leader, keeping us in the game, keeping us energized and keeping us rolling.”

The defense has its issues, too. The Lobo running game gashed the Rams for some big gainers, rushing for 318 overall, but CSU found the fight to make enough plays and produce the game’s lone turnover, which the offense converted to points.

Resilient is a word the players are throwing around for the first time in awhile.

It’s because they can.

“You just have to come back to the sideline and regroup, really,” said defensive end Jakob Buys, who recovered the fumble and provided a sack late. “They were making plays, plays we haven’t seen on film, really, from them. They just kept making those plays, so we just kept coming to the sideline and were like, ‘where’s this ball hitting?’ We had to find the mistakes we were making and we had to fix them.”

As the team hits the homestretch, the good news is three of the final four are at Lubick Field at CSU Stadium, starting Saturday with Air Force. The only trip CSU has to make is a bus trip north to Wyoming, which isn’t as taxing as flying to Alabama or Hawaii.

Inside is the real hidden gem, that the bad news on the schedule has played out stellar, yet Bobo knows his team has to be better to close it out right.

“Your ultimate goal is you want to compete for championships on a consistent basis, and we’re on track to do that,” Bobo said. “We’re 4-0 in conference, we’ve won three road games in conference, but that doesn’t mean anything yet. We still have a lot of work to do; we have four tough games left. The good news is three of them are at home.”

Mike Brohard: 970-635-3633, mbrohard@reporter-herald.com and twitter.com/mbrohard