ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Boise State football team is well aware of where it sits.

With two games left in the regular season, the Broncos have to win both to win the Mountain Division and play in the conference title game. One loss, and they’ll be eliminated.

“Everybody on the team knows that if we want to make it to the championship we have to win out,” linebacker Tyson Maeva said.

The first of those two games comes tonight when the Broncos travel to Albuquerque to play the New Mexico Lobos at Dreamstyle Stadium at 7 on the CBS Sports Network.

On the surface the game should be a blowout. Boise State is rolling, having won five games in a row, while New Mexico enters with a five-game losing streak.

The Lobos have just three wins, and they have come against Incarnate Word, New Mexico State and UNLV. Boise State (8-2, 5-1 MW) is a three-touchdown favorite.

But nobody around Boise has been talking about New Mexico (3-7, 1-5 MW) in advance of this game. The focus and conversation has been about Utah State, which is ranked ahead of the Broncos in the CFP rankings and the much more difficult game the Broncos will have to win next week.

Most expect the Broncos to beat the Lobos easily to set up a monster showdown next week in which the winner of the game will win the Mountain Division and move on to the championship.

Boise State coach Bryan Harsin hopes that sentiment is the furthest thing from his players’ minds.

“Utah State is a really good team but that’s not who we are focused on,” Maeva said. “We have to beat New Mexico first. .. We always keep that 1-0 mentality. That’s one of coach Harsin’s biggest things he harps on every day. Going into this game on Monday he talked about how this is the most important game of the season.”

In reality, tonight is Boise State’s biggest game, at least right now. If the Broncos lose to New Mexico, then Utah State will lock up the division title and next week’s game won’t mean anything. The Broncos would be eliminated with a loss tonight.

“I’d say this is just as big,” left guard John Molchon said. “This is going to be a really good team and they will really want a piece of us. It’s just a 1-0 mentality and I really like looking at it that way because I don’t want any surprises. We’re really taking the challenge on like that. Nobody is letting up. This is just as important week as the next one.”

It’s easy for outsiders to think the Broncos might already be looking ahead to the much tougher game against Utah State next week. It’s only natural given the stakes and the fact that the New Mexico game is sandwiched between a huge win over Fresno State and another big game against the Aggies.

But history says that would be a bad idea for the Broncos, and that’s why they are doing their best to avoid it. It was just three seasons ago in 2015 when Boise State lost at home to the Lobos despite being favored by 35 points. It was one of the biggest point-spread upsets in college football history.

“At this level in college football if you don’t go prepare the right way any team can beat you,” safety Kekoa Nawahine said. “If you don’t give the proper respect and preparation to who the team is in front of you, that’s the ingredients for not a good game on your part. … We have an opponent this week and that’s our focus and who we want to beat.”

Harsin has been using the 1-0 approach since he arrived at Boise State for situations just like this: to avoid struggling in what would appear to be the classic trap game.

“We’re the best when we focus on the task at hand and we’re the worst when we don’t,” Harsin said. “We try not to change much each week because of that. I’ve seen it. I’ve been part of it. I’ve done it myself. I’ve looked ahead and done those types of things, and then all of a sudden you are in a fight and all that looking ahead was wasted time that you could have been looking at what’s right in front of you.

“We had a really good win (last week), we got some momentum and we want to carry that into this week. If guys decide not to (focus on New Mexico), then it will show up.”

The Broncos don’t need to worry about style points or winning by 30-plus points tonight. The meaning will be the same, whether they win 7-6 or 45-0. Next week’s regular-season finale against Utah State could be one of the most anticipated Boise State games in years — if the Broncos can take care of business against New Mexico first.

“We have to win this game, and then after we win this game we can look forward to next week,” senior Jabril Frazier said. “We always talk about one game at a time. We can’t look forward to who we play next week. It’s New Mexico this week and we have to be ready to play them and to play a full four quarters.”