In BYU’s game against Baylor on Saturday night, there was a major theme being played out for the Cougars, along with two not-so-minor notes.

The theme was and is a most important one, a matter the Cougars faced in the here and now, and one they’ll face for what’s left of the season: They had and have to win. No room for excuses, no room for error, no room even for explanation; only room for fulfilled expectation. Namely, winning a Big 12 title and getting into the College Football Playoff, although those two things don’t necessarily have to go hand in hand.

That’s what the Cougars talked about and dialed in on months ago. Cutting straight to the chase, that’s what they preserved in a 28-7 victory against the Bears.

In order to keep those hopes intact, they had to master one of those initial major-minor notes — a bit of befuddlement they had to understand, solve and capitalize on to get what they wanted. The other note was connected to the initial one.

Both notes sat, in large measure, on the mind, shoulders, arm and legs of quarterback Bear Bachmeier. No surprise there. You want to be a big-time college quarterback, this is the kind of pressure situation you deal with.

In this case, Bear-on-Bears stratagem.

It had to do with a double-barreled quirk involving Baylor’s defense, a quality unit that ranked third overall in the Big 12 in scoring, allowing just 17 points per game.

Here’s the peculiarity, though: The Bears defense ranked first in the conference in sacks, having dropped opposing quarterbacks a whopping 37 times for a loss of 233 yards before Saturday’s kick. That ranked the Baylor defense second nationally. It also ranked second in tackles for loss — with a team total of 80.

The big ol’ but?

But … the back end of that defense ranked just 10th in overall Big 12 pass D, yielding 236 yards through the air and a completion percentage just shy of 60 percent. That ranked Baylor 109th nationally in passing yards allowed.

What BYU and Bachmeier did on a sloppy natural-grass field at LaVell Edwards Stadium wasn’t so much about passing for a load of yards — they didn’t — as it was about stirring enough offense, any which way, to give themselves enough chances to score. And then, to let their defense protect their favorable margin.

Baylor’s defense went ahead and sacked Bachmeier only once. It should be acknowledged that, coming into the game, the Cougars’ offensive front ranked first in the Big 12 in preventing sacks and fourth nationally, having surrendered just five all season.

One other worthwhile stat that mitigates some of the aforementioned quirkiness is this: Despite giving up so many passing yards while proficiently knocking quarterbacks around, Baylor also ranked 20th nationally in pass-efficiency defense, a dense metric that essentially indicates that while the Bears usually yield substantial air yardage, they are efficient at limiting the damage caused by it.

The other note: After losing two of their last three games and being shut out in the second half of the Cougars’ loss to Utah last week, they had to find a consistent way to move the ball down the field for touchdowns.

Well. To that end, BYU rediscovered its rushing attack early against Baylor, an endeavor that had been mostly lurching and lumbering in the absence of the injured LJ Martin. Martin played sparingly in last week’s defeat, but he wasn’t himself. He was partway there against the Bears, at least for a minute. He gained 49 yards on six carries before getting dinged again.

Others stepped in and up, impressive because Baylor ranked 26th nationally in stopping the run, yielding just 112 yards per outing. BYU got more, a lot more. And more on that in a few paragraphs.

As for Baylor, on both sides of the ball, the Bears were forced to adjust to flying in just a fistful of hours before the game commenced, on account of a national ground stop. Whether that had a discombobulating effect on their performance here is up to the beholder to believe.

BYU couldn’t have cared less.

Benefiting from positive energy out of the LaVell Edwards crowd, the Cougars went up 14-zip in the first quarter and 21-0 in the first half, with Bachmeier scampering for all three scores. Their drives were declarative and decisive, as was their QB, delivering the ball up and on time, running when space opened. And space opened frequently, created via a strong push from the BYU offensive line. On the Cougars’ third scoring drive, they traversed 96 yards on 18 plays, 15 of them rushes.

When Bachmeier saw no safe route downfield, he simply tucked and ran, à la his former self from last season. Some folks might consider that bad news, evidence of a kind of hesitancy on the QB’s part to spin the rock after serving up four picks last week against Utah. Or maybe it was offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick’s decision to be cautious. As effective as that approach was in the first two quarters, it wasn’t working in the third and fourth quarters. Not until it did.

With the Cougars’ offense repeatedly stalling in the second half, getting shut out as it was a week ago, and the Cougars’ defense allowing a TD by the Bears in the final quarter, Bachmeier found new life, delivering a touchdown throw to Jojo Phillips that slammed the door on Baylor.

There are those who are convinced BYU must round out its comprehensive attack — by land and air — to take care of whatever it might face in the postseason — if it is fortunate enough to qualify for what they seek. Their total offensive output against Baylor was just 312 yards, a mere 123 via the pass.

So it was that BYU ran and ran and ran, and ran away from defeat.

All told, BYU gained 189 rushing yards, compliments of Martin, Bachmeier (54), Sione Moa (37), Preston Rex (28), Devaughn Eka (19), and Legend Glasker (2). They ran like they were running out of time, and that leads straight back to the major theme — what the whole of this was really about.

Keeping hope alive.

The Cougars, after losing those games following their huge win over Notre Dame, are fully aware of what they want — a berth in the CFP. They’d happily take a slot in the Big 12 championship game if they can get it, an opportunity that would be particularly rewarding for them if they had another shot at U-Know-Who.

Either way, their playoffs have already begun. The threat of elimination has already arrived. They had to beat Baylor, and they have to beat Kansas on the road and Cincinnati at home over the next couple of weeks. Situated at 10th in the CFP rankings, there’s no room for slippage.

They know it.

Now, they have to play like it.