The next four games could be the most important games of Mario Cristobal’s tenure at Miami.

If the No. 18 Hurricanes win their final four regular-season games, they will have a fighting chance for a spot in the College Football Playoff. If they lose any of them, their season is over and they will spend December preparing for a bowl game that many would consider meaningless.

Given the stakes for the final stretch, it is only fitting that Miami’s quest to reach the playoffs continues Saturday with a matchup against struggling Syracuse, which knocked the Hurricanes out of last year’s playoffs, at 3:30 p.m. at Hard Rock Stadium (ESPN).

“The losses motivate us, just in general,” linebacker Mo Toure said. “Taking a loss isn’t easy for any of us. We’re all competitors. We all work hard, and we all come in every single week trying to attack the week so we can get a win at the end of the week. So when we don’t get a win. That’s not what we’re looking for, what we’re looking to do going into the game. When we don’t get a win, it was hard on everybody, and we come back in, we just tighten up our mindset again.”

Miami has several challenges in front of it this weekend, and not all of them are presented by the Orange.

The Hurricanes largely evaded the injury bug in the first half of the season, but now they have several key players who will miss this week’s game.

The biggest loss is Mark Fletcher Jr., who has been Miami’s most productive running back. The American Heritage alum has been ruled out on UM’s availability report with an undisclosed injury he suffered against SMU. He has a career-high 636 yards and nine touchdowns on 125 carries. Miami will need to rely on a committee of running backs to fill his absence.

The Hurricanes will also be without starting cornerback OJ Frederique Jr., who missed last week’s game with an injury. Cornerbacks Damari Brown, Ethan O’Connor and Xavier Lucas all performed admirably in his absence.

UM also listed wide receiver CJ Daniels as questionable, though Cristobal said Monday that he expects the starting receiver to miss several games. Miami also listed linebacker Wesley Bissainthe and defensive lineman Ahmad Moten Sr. as questionable.

Regardless of the players on the field, the Hurricanes need to work to avoid costly penalties. Miami has been one of the most penalized teams in the nation, getting called for eight penalties per game this year. Against SMU, the Hurricanes had 12 penalties for 96 yards, including a crucial fourth-down personal foul that extended the Mustangs’ game-tying drive.

The Hurricanes have been working to correct that problem.

“We’ve reached a point in time where it’s like we have tried, we have made the tweaks and adjustments, but it’s not good enough,” Cristobal said. “And it’s hurt us, and we know that. So certainly there is, there’s some more adjustments coming to it and there’s confidence and faith that it’s going to be better. And hopefully, I can say with confidence you’ll see a better result in that area because it’s unacceptable.”

Fortunately for Miami, it has an opportunity to work out all those issues against a struggling opponent. Syracuse has lost five straight games after starting quarterback Steve Angeli suffered a season-ending Achilles tendon tear.

Since Angeli’s injury, the Orange have struggled mightily on offense. Syracuse is 97th in points per game. Last week, Orange coach Fran Brown put freshman walk-on Joseph Filardi in the lineup to play against North Carolina. Filardi completed just four of 18 passes in a 27-10 loss.

TheOrange will go back to Rickie Collins, who Brown benched in favor of Filardi, on Saturday. Collins has completed 54.5 percent of his passes for 957 yards and six touchdowns with eight interceptions this season. Pro Football Focus gives Collins a 46.9 passing grade, which is last out of 20 ACC quarterbacks with 100 or more dropbacks this year.

Although the Orange is struggling, the Hurricanes are not taking them lightly despite being 28-point favorites.

“I feel like the coaches, strength staff, everybody around the building, our leaders are doing a good job of just keeping everybody motivated,” defensive back Keionte Scott said. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to control what we can control, and at this point of the season, focus on each week and take each week very seriously and do what we can do and what we know we can do.”