Kyle Whittingham was asked at his weekly press conference on Monday what the biggest difference is between this year’s Oregon team and the one his Utah squad beat last year to win the Pac-12 championship.

The answer is obvious, Whittingham says.

“QB, without a doubt,” he said. “Bo Nix is a tremendous player. I believe he’s second or third in QBR in the country.”

Nix is third. And, yes, that’s even after a loss to Washington.

“Lost their first game to Georgia and their last game, but in between, they’ve been playing lights out,” Whittingham said of the Ducks. “They didn’t play poorly against Washington, either. Washington just played exceptionally well and won the game. Oregon’s terrific on offense.  … They’re doing a lot of really good things. We’ve got our work cut out for us and our hands full on defense to try and slow that down.”

It’s fair to question whether Oregon even loses to the Huskies if Nix doesn’t leave the game in a crucial moment with an injury.

The former Auburn quarterback ranks fourth nationally in expected points added. He’s been one of the most valuable players not just in the Pac-12, but in the country. And with Oregon driving inside the UW 20-yard-line to possibly go up by 11 points in the final five minutes of Saturday’s game, Nix was forced out of the game after sustaining a hard shot on a third-and-5 run.

The Ducks were forced to settle for a field goal. The Huskies closed the gap from there. Nix returned to the field for Oregon’s final possession, but he was clearly hobbled.

On Monday, coach Dan Lanning seemed to hint at Nix being fine going forward. There were no season-ending injuries to announce, and the Duck head coach said on multiple occasions he felt optimistic about their situation heading into the new week. He stopped short of sharing specifics, though.

“Yeah, I’m not going to share really any update with anybody. We came away dinged up in that game,” he said. “I will say I feel a lot more positive today beginning to hear some news on where things are at right now.”

Later, he was asked about the team’s depth on the offensive line and said, “again, feeling better about our health this week.”

Oregon is obviously a different team with Nix at the controls. He has 2,774 passing yards, 512 rushing yards, and 39 total touchdowns this season. He’s just the third FBS player since 2000 to post at least 24 passing touchdowns and 14 rushing touchdowns in his team’s first 10 games.

The Ducks rank fourth nationally in scoring, putting up 42.2 points per game. Nix has helped lead a 10.8-points-per-game difference between last year’s team.

“That,” Whittingham says, “is absolutely the single biggest difference between last year and this year.”