Head coach Dan Lanning addressed the media on Monday night as No. 8-ranked Oregon comes off its bye week and prepares for a marquee matchup with No. 7 Washington.

This annual rivalry game — which will continue into the future as both teams enter the Big Ten — has time and again decided the outcome of the Pac-12 North (when that was a thing) and at times the entire conference.

Last year, Washington ended Oregon’s four-year home winning streak with a 37-34 victory. This year, these two teams are arguably the class of the Pac-12, so Saturday’s matchup is as significant as it's ever been between these foes.

Here’s what we learned from Lanning’s press conference:

Washington QB Michael Penix Jr. had begun to garner attention as one of the best deep ball throwers in the nation when the Huskies faced the Ducks last season. He displayed that talent in Autzen, throwing for 408 yards and two touchdowns of 76 and 62 yards — the second, a bomb to Taj Davis that tied the game up — before Washington stuffed Oregon on a fourth-and-1 and kicked the game-winning field goal.

If Penix Jr. entered that matchup as a rising star, he certainly left as a cemented one.

He enters this Saturday as the odds on favorite (at +200) to win the Heisman Trophy, moving ahead of reigning champ Caleb Williams of USC. Penix has passed for 1,999 yards, 16 touchdowns and 2 interceptions in five games, topping 400 yards in three of those games.

“He has great vision down the field,” Lanning said. “He’s also being well-protected. He’s obviously got a great wide receiver corps. They’ve done a great job at finding ways for him to throw people open.”

Penix’s arm strength put him on the map, but he’s far more than a deep-ball gunslinger, now as he's completing 74.7 percent of his passes.

“[He] has the ability to get rid of the ball when he does have pressure on him,” Lanning said. “He probably doesn’t get enough credit for that.”

That will be paramount against the Ducks, whose pass rush sacked Shedeur Sanders seven times and a defense that has given up just 12 points in the past two weeks.