The way BYU’s offense started the Cougars’ game at TCU on Saturday night, you would have thought Kalani Sitake’s team was fighting to preserve and protect a spot in college football’s bottom 10, not the top.

That attack was horrible — stumbling and bumbling around, missing assignments, getting no push from the offensive line, gaining limited yardage on the ground, barely trying to throw the ball downfield, attempting to nibble at the edges via the pass and the run and mostly failing, falling into third-and-long situations and settling for conservative run plays that had no chance of moving the chains, drawing multiple flags on false starts and holding calls, dribbling snaps, missing easy throws and, in general, picking up few first downs.

Yeah, BYU — and TCU, too — combined to kick offensive football back a century or so on this occasion. That’s no exaggeration: The teams combined for a total of 475 yards. BYU gained just 216. The weather was wet and soggy, but really? That’s what some folks want to blame for this mess of a performance?

Final nasty numbers up on the scoreboard: BYU 17, TCU 10.

A late 10-play, 72-yard bit of brilliance, ending with a brutally physical 21-yard TD run by Bear Bachmeier, was the large measure of difference in this game.

If it weren’t for BYU’s defense (all over that weak Horned Frogs O) — which set up the Cougars’ only first-half touchdown, a different Bachmeier scamper after safety Faletau Satuala’s interception and 50-plus-yard return — it’s fairly certain that this game would have been not just ugly, but oooogly, unattractive enough to scare the mud off a shovel.

In the college game, as everyone knows, looks matter.

But it wasn’t just an issue of appearances. The outcome was wholly in doubt, especially when a TCU attack that had been ineffective for most of this early season put together a 76-yard touchdown drive, punctuated with a completed pass into the end zone with 27 seconds left in the second quarter to tie the game at 7.

Where it would go from there was a mystery.

Stacking up BYU’s troubles were injuries. Offensive tackle Andrew Gentry was out. Running back LJ Martin got hurt. Linebacker Isaiah Glasker got hurt. BYU’s feelings got hurt.

All that talk about Bachmeier making 100 miles of sophisticated advancement from his freshman year to this one in understanding the offense and mastering it, especially by way of being able now to carry the Cougars with his arm, proved to be false. With Martin getting his ankle dinged early, the front failing to create space, and none of Martin’s backups rising up, Bachmeier was both lonely and falling short in his feeble attempts to save the day.

The quarterback threw for just 31 yards in the first half, completing only six passes, and he chucked for 31 in the second. He was repeatedly hurried and looked out of rhythm and uncomfortable throughout. He even struggled to pitch the ball on time and accurately.

Flipping the ball to Legend Glasker and hoping for the best out of the freshman receiver didn’t seem like anything more than a cry for help. All told, BYU got six first downs in that initial half, nine in the back half.

That’s the unfortunate news.

The fortunate? Bachmeier’s grit at the end, his ability to power the ball forward with his runs — alongside the defense — that’s what saved the win. He picked up 66 yards via 15 carries on the ground.

What are observers to make of such a performance?

A few things.

First, Martin is huge for BYU; without him … you be the judge.

Second, the Cougars might not be as good as people thought they would be this season. Even those who want to give BYU a break, space for one lousy showing in conference play … well, that allowance has now been used up. It’s a good bet that a team that had as its own expectation this season to sit atop the Big 12 when it’s all said and done and go on to make the CFP will have to play much better from here on out for that to happen.

Beating Notre Dame? That seems from here to eternity at this point.

Third, as relieved as BYU is with a tightly wound road victory, poll voters will not be impressed. Dumb as it might be that every little visual is so important, at least for a Big 12 team, it remains a fact.

To be sure, BYU’s offense was tepid initially; it was only slightly better through to the end. Bachmeier is a gifted athlete; he is not a one-man band. And for whatever reason, offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick went almost exclusively conservative in his play-calling. He didn’t trust his line, nor his quarterback, nor his receivers, choosing to favor short routes and routine handoffs, the latter being particularly curious considering the absence of Martin, last season’s Big 12 offensive player of the year.

He repeatedly counted on Bachmeier’s legs and giving the ball to backs like Preston Rex and Journee Tonga, mixed in with Glasker. Maybe he thought the BYU defense would be enough.

Kicker Matthias Dunn hit a 49-yard field goal to give the Cougars a slight edge, 10-7, midway through the third quarter. And then came a lot of muddling around until that last impressive drive for the win.

The postgame quote of the night came from Bachmeier, who said: “I just want to win the game.”

He did and he did.