Dan Lanning saw encouraging signs in Oregon’s 49-22 win over Arizona.

He saw a secondary limit Arizona’s high-flying pass game to just 241 yards and one score. He saw the defense force a pair of red zone turnovers and only give up a single touchdown in five defensive trips. He saw the offense continue to find ways to be balanced and efficient on offense.

“I thought our guys played, in a lot of ways, maybe our most complete game,” said the Oregon head coach earlier this week. “I think we definitely could have done some stuff better special teams-wise. And then we have to be able to finish. There were a couple penalties on drives that extended drives and gave them an opportunity to throw the ball down the field, we’ve got to do a better job there, but we were advantageous with takeaways. Outside of two running plays, we did a good job of stopping the run. We knew that they were going to have a good passing game, but I thought our guys responded well.”

Specifically in the secondary, the win might feel like a confidence-boosting performance.

The Ducks have given up more passing yards and more passing touchdowns than any other team in the Pac-12 through six weeks. Of course, part of that is Week 1 skewing things. Georgia Stetson Bennett exposed how much work was needed in the pass defense, completing 30 of his 37 passes for 439 yards and three scores.

The other piece of it: during this five-game winning streak since, the Ducks are forcing teams to abandon the run and throw the ball. Oregon allows the fourth-fewest yards per carry of any team in the league. So teams throw the ball on the Ducks.

But against the most pass-happy team in the league, Oregon limited the Wildcats.

Overall, Lanning liked the physicality he saw from the secondary. Freshman Jalil Florence had an interception after coming in when a targeting penalty knocked Dontae Manning out of the game. Christian Gonzalez held Arizona’s Jacob Cowing — the Pac-12’s leading receiver — largely in check; Cowing had six catches on nine targets, but he didn’t find the endzone and he only produced one explosive play.

Of course, that’s probably one too many for Lanning’s liking, but with Gonzalez moving into the slot (matchup-based) for extended action for really the first time all season, Lanning liked what he saw.

“I think it was a tough challenge for him, but obviously we think really highly of Christian, and he’s the kind of player that we can put in a lot of different positions,” said Lanning. “They had a really talented slot receiver. We want to be able to see him move around there. I thought he handled the first game of that, doing it pretty well. If you guys remember going back into fall camp, we said we wanted to train guys in multiple positions and be able to see what they can do. And that’s a great example of a guy not necessarily getting a ton of reps throughout the season at one spot and then being able to go and adjust on the fly.”

Lanning says the Ducks are using the bye week to self-scout, and the secondary will look to keep the momentum it’s building coming out of the break.