Oregon put forth perhaps its most complete performance Saturday evening against Arizona. The defense created three takeaways, the offense ran roughshod over the Wildcats, and Bo Nix showed once again why he’s one of the Pac-12’s best players this season.

The Ducks (5-1, 3-0 Pac-12) beat the Wildcats (3-3, 1-2 Pac-12) 49-22 for their fifth straight victory. Here are three takeaways from the game.

Bo is balling

Former Oregon defensive back Verone McKinley III has a message for the world.

Ya love the optimism. Maybe not a leader for the Heisman Trophy, but Bo Nix is certainly playing like a possible Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year. Get this: in his last four games, Nix has eight rushing touchdowns. EIGHT. He had three against the Wildcats on Saturday. Oregon has found something with Nix as a runner, and offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham has decided to roll with it.

Whether it’s on the ground of through the air, Nix is playing remarkably efficient football right now. The Ducks had a 63% offensive success rate against Arizona — an absurd mark. Nix completed 20 of his 25 pass attempts for 265 yards. He hit 15 of his first 16 passes, including 14 straight. He added 70 rushing yards and three scores on eight carries.

In his last five games, Nix has 20 total touchdowns and one turnover.

Nix had 15 total touchdowns a year ago, his final season with Auburn. The year prior he had 19 in 11 games. He’s three away from tying a career-high for touchdowns in a season.

Nix is playing the best football of his career. He’s been perfect for this Oregon offense since the Week 1 loss to Georgia. And I’d go so far as to say that Nix’s play — and the overall offense’s by extension — has the Ducks looking like a top-two team in the Pac-12.

Everyone has been so interested in USC-Utah on Oct. 15 in Salt Lake City, billing it as a matchup with Pac-12 title and maybe even College Football Playoff implications. The matchup between UCLA and Oregon a week later in Autzen looks like a better game. The matchup between Nix and UCLA’s Dorian Thompson-Robinson could provide us with something special.

Run defense strikes again for Arizona

Oregon ran for 310 yards on Arizona. Noah Whittington had 92 yards and a score on six carries. Jordan James had 69 yards and a score on 10 carries. Bucky Irving had 67 yards and a score on 12 carries. Take the kneel-downs out of the average and Oregon averaged 8 yards a run.

North Dakota State ran for 283 at 6 yards a pop on the Wildcats. A week later, Cal ran for 354 at 9 yards a pop. Arizona needs to get the run defense figure out.

Arizona Stadium was sold out. Losing in that fashion — dominated at the line of the scrimmage — worked to empty the stands well before the game ended. That performance was worst-case scenario stuff for Arizona, which was taken out of everything it wanted to do. The run defense needs some major work.

Dan Lanning does it again

It’s inescapable at this point; gameday Saturday arrives and while you wait for the Ducks to come on TV, you peak at the college football scoreboard and you see what’s going on with Miami. The Hurricanes are talking about moral victories and getting close, losers now of three straight. And then you see Oregon and the issues that were present the week prior have been ironed out of the game.

Oregon was probably sick of the penalty talk this week. It was asked of everyone. “How do you cut down the penalties? What are you doing to limit them in practice?” Oregon was penalized just trying to line up at the line of scrimmage a week ago against Stanford. Fourteen flags were thrown, resulting in 135 lost yards against the Ducks.

Lanning harped on it. After the game — a 45-27 win — he promised they’d be better. They were. The Ducks were flagged just six times against Arizona. The offensive line, killed a week ago by penalties, was flagged just once.

Week after week Oregon comes out and shows improvement in areas of focus. Saturday’s game was no different. The Ducks were cleaner — particularly so considering there were no tackles for loss allowed and no giveaways.