In many ways, now-No. 6-ranked Oregon’s 35-6 win over No. 18 Utah was the most impressive victory the Ducks have had since head coach Dan Lanning took over prior to the 2022 season.

The win over Utah last season is certainly in that discussion, but the stakes and the margin of this one trump that.

History says, a win like that tends to be followed by a hangover, and next on the slate is a Cal team that is playing some of its best football, fresh off pushing USC to the wire in a 50-49 loss, so the Ducks need to shift their focus to the Bears.

On Monday, Lanning addressed the significant win over the Utes, the few cracks that lay in it, and the way in which they’re preparing for Cal.

Here were the top takeaways from his comments ...

While many coaches dissuade players from celebrating touchdowns, first downs or momentum-shifting plays, Lanning and his staff encourage it. It’s a core facet of their philosophy and it’s especially applied when minute details are executed at a high level.

“Defensively, missed tackles are down. … Our downfield blocking and guys being involved in plays where they’re not touching the ball, that’s up.” Lanning said. “One of the things we coached the hardest today is: how we’re going to celebrate when we have a successful play.”

It’s things like that, which don’t show up in the box score, that excite Lanning about this iteration of Oregon football. Although the Ducks produced those moments aplenty this past Saturday, he still found ways in which they could improve.

As any coach would, in a 29-point win, his eye was drawn to the penalties and failed third down conversions that led to punts. However, when Oregon did have to punt, it got to celebrate another small victory — the performance at the punter position with Ross James.

“Ross played his best game this last game,” Lanning said. “It’s not always the distance you punt it -- it’s the hang time you put on the punt. He had a sky kick that we could have pinned inside of the 10 that we weren’t able to pin. … He’s executed at a really high level.”

The punter on the nation’s best offense may not have many opportunities to earn praise, but Lanning certainly took notice.

Cal is coming off an impressive loss — a moral victory, if you will — at home against No. 24 USC. The Bears took a highly-publicized, nationally-ranked opponent to the wire and went for the kill in regulation. However, their two-point conversion attempt failed and the Trojans eked out a 50-49 victory.

The Bears (now 3-5, 1-4 in the Pac-12) led for the majority of Saturday and it wasn’t a fluke in Lanning’s opinion.

“These guys are scoring a lot of points, they’re extremely efficient,” he said. “I think they’re playing some of their best ball, especially offensively.”

That much is easy to tell by the fact that the Bears had 527 total yards of offense last Saturday. Apart from the scoring and raw stats, what stood out to Lanning is the stark contrast between the approach of this Bears’ team and last year. Specifically, the speed at which they play and the versatility in their play-calling.

“The tempo they operate with makes you be simple on defense,” Lanning said. “Everyone has to be gap sound because every play has two plays, you have a run play and a pass play on every play. Different people have different jobs and you have to execute at a high level.”

Cal ranks 45th nationally in total offense at 422.5 yards per game, which is indeed a dramatic improvement from last season when it finished 89th (364.6 YPG).

The reason the Bears have had such success with executing their scheme is because of the personnel administering it.

Lanning pointed out the talent of the quarterback, redshirt freshman Fernando Mendoza, and the starting running back Jaydn Ott — an NFL l-vel player, from Lanning’s perspective.

“They’ve created a lot of success for themselves on offense,” Lanning said. “Not the same team we’ve played in the past.”

Mendoza, a former two-star prospect who got his chance after transfer QBs Sam Jackson V (TCU) and Ben Finley (NC State) struggled, presents a dual-threat challenge as a QB who goes through his progressions in a diligent manner but also has the wherewithal to know when to escape the pocket. He threw for 292 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception Saturday, while adding 48 yards and 2 touchdowns on the ground.

It’ll pose yet another test for the sturdy pass rush Oregon’s shown.

Ott complements Mendoza as he’s a disciplined runner that flows with the uptempo pace the Bears play at.

He ranks 9th nationally in rushing yards per game at 108 and rushed for 153 yards (73 YPC) and 3 TDs vs. USC while doing most of that in the first half.

Two players that Lanning highlighted on Monday were cornerbacks Khyree Jackson and Jahlil Florence, for different reasons.

Jackson, for his prototype.

“He has the traits of guy who can play the position for a long, long time,” Lanning said. “When you build them on Madden, that’s how you build them: long guys that can run, he’s built like that.”

Jackson certainly uses that to his advantage as he had 2 tackles for loss from the boundary this past week, not to mention, playing a huge part in holding the Utes to 142 passing yards.

Florence, on the other hand, received praise for the linear growth he’s shown.

“Jahlil is really developing a lot of experience this season,” Lanning said. “This past game he played fast at moments and was decisive, and when you’re decisive you can execute at a high level.”

Lanning recalled a play in which Florence tracked a Utes’ receiver across the formation, after there was a lot of pre-snap movement, in order to make a stop.

He led the team with 9 total tackles on Saturday.