Saturday night’s loss drops West Virginia’s record to 8-2 this season and 5-2 in the Big 12 as well as out of the conference and national championship picture. There’s a lot of good in that sentence in spite of the bad outcome. This is November, after all, and there was a time when it was far from the kindest month to Dana Holgorsen’s Mountaineers.

Nevertheless, last night’s loss answered many questions and asked a few others.

It felt like opinions were in a holding pattern and that they would land following the prime time showdown, and now that that’s in the past, you look forward. I think the concern is that WVU is 13-3 in the past 16 games but 0-1 against ranked opponents. The Mountaineers are at a point where they do beat teams they’re supposed to beat and can beat teams that are at or near their level. There’s incentive to say they’ve not yet shown themselves to be a group that can regularly fight up a weight class and win, but they also can’t account for the way the schedule is set up or for the fact Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas and Texas Tech, teams that have been ranked when they’ve won or lost against WVU in the past, weren’t ranked when they saw WVU this season or last season.

Still, the 13 wins are against teams that were a combined 16 games below .500 when they took the field. TCU was two games above .500 before the Mountaineers beat the Horned Frogs last month. Everyone else was anywhere between 10 games below and one game above .500. Kansas is in there twice, and they were 0-10 and 1-7, so there’s the 16 games below .500, but the other 11 defeated opponents were collectively even with .500. It’s not been a murderer’s row.

Holgorsen’s message last week was the offense needed to be better or face the consequences. “Probably at some point this year were going to need the offense to play better if we’re going to want to win,” he said. There was an impending pressure to hang up a big number on the scoreboard, because the Sooners are indeed that good offensively. But, as you know, we subscribe to a theory here: There comes a time when you are who you are.

WVU is a team that gobbles up yardage and leaves points on the plate. No. 19 in yards per game. No. 47 in points per game. That’s dangerous, and turnovers and the red zone issues were bound to be problematic. (So, too, was the punt return dice game, and though Gary Jennings wasn’t solely to blame for a critical turnover, it still happened and still counts.) WVU had turnovers in the red zone Saturday, and the account past due was paid in full.

They finished with 579 yards of offense against the Sooners and lost 56-28. No WVU team has ever scored fewer points with that many yards.

“The difference between us and a championship team,” running backs coach JaJuan Seider said, “is a championship team doesn’t beat itself.”

WVU (8-2, 5-2 Big 12) committed four turnovers. One was on a punt return, one was an interception returned for a touchdown and two were fumbles lost inside Oklahoma’s 5-yard line. In the two losses this season, WVU has committed seven turnovers that Oklahoma and Oklahoma State turned into 44 points — and the Sooners missed an extra point Saturday.

The Mountaineers lost the two games by a combined 45 points, and now they’re out of contention for the Big 12 championship. Oklahoma (9-2, 8-0) has won eight straight games and plays host to No. 11 Oklahoma State (9-2, 7-1) on Dec. 3 for the conference title.

“They’re a good football team,” WVU coach Dana Holgorsen said. “You can’t make the mistakes we did against a good football team. Everyone wants to say they’re not very good because of what happened early in the year — they’re a different football team now than they were early in the year.”

Poor Justin Crawford. He finished with a flashy 331 yards rushing and he never reached the end zone. The last FBS player to rush for that much yardage and not win? Tavon Austin against the Sooners in 2012. It was that kind of night for the Mountaineers.

What now? There are two games left, and I can assure you Iowa State isn’t scared of WVU. I’m willing to expect nothing and accept anything from Baylor, which has all the signs of a team that’s had enough of a very long season. But we’re talking bowls, right? I think a 1-1 finish pushes the Mountaineers into the Russell Athletic Bowl against an ACC team and probably Florida State. A 2-0 finish should do it — I don’t see the Alamo passing on Oklahoma or Oklahoma State — but an 0-2 finish could be enough, too. Such is the state of the Big 12.

The wrinkle is the College Football Playoff. If Oklahoma State or, more likely, Oklahoma makes the final four, the other team goes to the Sugar Bowl and the Alamo could pick WVU.

So, in closing, damage was definitely done Saturday night, but how much is entirely subjective from the coldest bleacher to the sweetest loge.

“Win or lose,” athletic director Shane Lyons said, “it doesn’t really change what the football program is doing this year.”