Sooners' National Title Hopes Take Hard Hit

An opening season loss for a team ranked at number three isn't necessarily the end of the world.

Oklahoma lost to a good BYU team that was ranked No. 20, and a big reason for that was being without their Heisman winning quarterback Sam Bradford.

However, I don't want to take anything away from BYU. They outplayed, out hustled, and overpowered the bigger athletes of Oklahoma for much of the game. Their defense stepped up and held one of the best offenses from a year ago to only 13 points.

Even when Bradford went out in the second quarter they only had seven points on the board. That's not like the Oklahoma offense that I've come to know the past few years.

Early evaluations are estimating that it will be at least a month before Bradford even throws a football. Lucky for the Sooners the next part of their schedule is the easiest part of the schedule. Their next significant game comes on October 3rd at Miami. We'll get a good idea of how bad Oklahoma will need Bradford for that game when we see Miami take on No. 18 Florida State tonight.

It definitely doesn't look pretty for the Sooners after this loss, but it's nowhere close to being over for them if they want a national championship. As tough as it will be with or without Bradford, if the Sooners win out they'll be in the National Championship game. By winning out they would have to beat Texas, Oklahoma State, Kansas, and Nebraska. Those are just the currently ranked teams. You also can't obviously forget about Miami or Texas Tech which are both on the road.

One thing is for sure. If Bradford doesn't return before the Texas game on Octboer 17th, and he's not 100 percent, it will be over for the Sooners.

Oklahoma's Next 5 Games

Sept. 12 Idaho St.
Sept. 19 Tulsa
Oct. 3 @ Miami (Fla)
Oct. 10 Baylor
Oct. 17 Texas ( at Dallas)