In a football game that many Sooner fans hoped would answer critics’ questions about an inexperienced group of offensive linemen and receivers, there was really only one thing revealed in the Sooners’ 14-13 loss to Brigham Young University Saturday night in Arlington, Texas: OU still has a lot of work to do.

Despite earning a No. 3 preseason ranking and predictions from many analysts that they would roll over No. 20 BYU on Saturday, the Sooners instead had almost all of their weaknesses exposed in one night.

The offensive line, with only one returning starter from the 2008 team, spent all night making mental errors, getting called for false starts and holds throughout the game.

The receivers, trying to replace the productive duo of Juaquin Iglesias and Manuel Johnson, spent a good portion of the night dropping passes and failing to get behind the BYU secondary on any deep passes.

The coaches spent the majority of the first half using what seemed like five percent of the playbook, keeping the ball on the ground and out of the hands of their Heisman-winning quarterback.

And of course, the chances of the Sooners playing well dropped significantly when junior quarterback Sam Bradford went down with a shoulder sprain late in the first half.

While the defense gave up just 14 points, despite being on the field for nearly 40 minutes and the special teams (punt and kick off teams specifically) played surprising well, almost everything else went wrong for OU on Saturday night.

Now the Sooners, who were expected by many to compete for yet another shot at a national championship, sit at the bottom of the Big 12 standings. So what does this all mean?

Well, the good news for OU fans is that since the BCS National Championship game is still four months away, the Sooners’ shot at a national title isn’t dead. Yet.

Since the first BCS Championship game during the 1998 season, only four title games have featured two undefeated teams. During that period, seven games have included at least a single one-loss team, two had two one-loss teams and in the 2007 championship one-loss Ohio State took on a two-loss LSU squad.

So there’s a good chance there will be a one-loss team in this year’s national championship game, and OU’s one point loss without its two best players (Bradford and senior tight end Jermaine Gresham) to a ranked opponent on a neutral field in the season opener won’t look so bad.

However, OU has a lot of work to do before anyone can begin seriously discussing the possibilities of the Sooners winning the rest of their games this season. The fact is, even with a healthy Bradford and Gresham, if OU plays like they did against BYU when they face teams like Texas and Oklahoma State, the Sooners will lose.

Season opening games often act as a barometer for teams to judge where they stand and what they need to work on. I think after this weekend, OU should have little trouble finding things to improve.

So while BYU did not kill the Sooners’ shot at a national title, it did prove that while this team has the talent to compete with any team in the country, it’s going to take a lot of work, luck and improvement for them to take a trip to California in January.