Arizona is not about playing the moral victory game, but Saturday's loss to No. 3 Oregon certainly can give the Wildcats something to build on heading into their bye week. The final score of 41-19 didn't show it, but the game was much closer than most outside observers expected.

UA trailed by less than a touchdown heading into the fourth quarter Saturday night at Autzen Stadium despite numerous miscues on the offensive side of the ball. The Wildcats shut out Oregon, 9-0, in the third quarter before the Ducks responded with 17 unanswered points to close out the game.

Arizona's performance was far from perfect, but coming off a loss to NAU in Week 3 it was a sign of progress for the Wildcats and head coach Jedd Fisch. Here is a look at some of our biggest takeaways from UA's 16th-straight defeat.

Arizona's search for a starting quarterback is over. After Saturday's loss Fisch announced that Jordan McCloud will remain in place as the starter at the position moving forward barring an injury. The transfer from USF sparked the Wildcats in the fourth quarter of their loss to NAU as he led a late touchdown drive that nearly allowed UA to tie that game. It earned him the start Saturday night on the road against the top team in the Pac-12, and he had the offense in a rhythm for a lot of the evening.

His performance did not come without negatives, however, as he nearly broke a school record with five interceptions, but he led a balanced attack for the Wildcats on a night when the team racked up 435 total yards.

McCloud finished the night 21-35 with 233 yards passing, a touchdown pass plus 64 yards on the ground. Arizona's offense has not looked as settled in as it did Saturday night at any other point in the season under either of the other starting quarterbacks, Gunner Cruz and Will Plummer.

"I don't know how many plays we ran today, but I feel like we called a lot of plays," Fisch said of McCloud's performance. "And, that's a lot of repetitions that he took. I wasn't gonna take him out, and not let him finish the game. I wanted him to feel it. I wanted him to understand, so that if we call that play again he understands what caused that interception and how he can improve upon it."

Fisch says that Cruz will serve as the team's backup until Plummer is able to return to 100% after suffering a shoulder injury in the loss to the Lumberjacks. After that Cruz and Plummer will battle for the backup role.

Coming into the season there was no question about which position at Arizona featured the most depth. Arizona's running back group is its deepest position and arguably has more talent top to bottom than any other group. However, that had yet to show itself on the field this season as the Wildcats were averaging the fewest rushing yards of any team in the Pac-12 heading into Saturday's game.

In the loss to Oregon, however, Arizona finally dedicated itself to the running game more than it had in any other contest leading to a season-high 202 yards on the ground. Northwestern transfer Drake Anderson led the way with 67 yards on 21 carries to go with his first touchdown as a member of the Wildcats. In all, UA used four different running backs in the game both to help on the ground and through the air.

Adding to the production from that unit, McCloud also contributed with 64 yards on just nine rushes in the loss.

The extra boost from the running game helped Arizona achieve balance for the first time this year as the Wildcats finished with 435 yards of total offense, 233 yards through the air and 202 yards on the ground.

"They're becoming more and more comfortable with what we're trying to get accomplished," Fisch said after Saturday's loss. "The runners ran with a real sense of purpose today. You could see there was a discipline in the running."

It's difficult to imagine the uptick in production on offense taking place without the help of the offensive line. There were still some mistakes, but the growth from the group up front was noticeable in Saturday's game. The Wildcats held their own against a top-notch defensive line on the other side. McCloud was only sacked once in the game eliminating a big issue the Wildcats had earlier in the season. Plus, the group shined from a run game perspective opening up holes for the backs to use throughout the night.

The running game was certainly aided by improved blocking from the tight ends and receivers, but the offensive line deserves a lot of credit for the improvements made against the Ducks.

In the passing game McCloud had more time to sit in the pocket than either Plummer or Cruz have had at any point this season. It allowed him to have some more success throwing the ball to keep the offense moving.

The rotation at the five positions remains tight as Josh Baker and Josh Donovan were the only two players to move in and out of the lineup at right guard. Outside of that the other four linemen all played the entire game.

Against NAU it looked like there might not be an end insight for the tailspin along the offensive line, but now that the group has improved health it has been able to take a step forward.

There were undoubtedly some big negative plays against the Arizona defense Saturday night. The Ducks were able to hit on some explosive plays, and that has been an ongoing issue for Arizona this season. However, there were some bright moments for the Wildcats on that side of the ball for a group that was down two starters in the first half. Both safety Jaxen Turner and defensive lineman Mo Diallo had to miss the first half of the game as part of their ejections for targeting in the loss to NAU.

Both players made their impact felt early in the second half with Diallo picking up the sack that sealed a safety that sparked the Wildcats in the third quarter. Turner had a pass breakup during his half of work.

UA wasn't able to create any turnovers in the game but still managed to come up with three tackles for loss, two sacks and six pass breakups.

Where the Wildcats struggled was in pass defense as a weakness has started to become exposed this season. Teams are continuing to pick on the UA safety group in coverage, and that was again clear in the loss to Oregon.

Gunner Maldonado was caught out of position early in the game when the Ducks went up 7-0 in the opening minutes. Oregon continued to pick on Maldonado and the other UA safeties throughout the night.

Defensive coordinator Don Brown and the rest of the defensive staff will have to figure out how to remedy those issues on the back end or risk continued attempts to expose that group as the season moves along.

Arizona now has some direction heading into its bye week. It knows who its quarterback will be for the foreseeable future and the team is starting to get back to 100% with its health. The next step will be taking from what it showed in the loss to Oregon and turning it into continued growth. Arizona showed that it could hang with one of the top teams in the country Saturday night, and that's a positive step coming off a dismal loss to an FCS school.

Fisch blamed the loss on the critical interceptions thrown by McCloud plus the penalties committed by the team. There were nine penalties for 58 yards against the Wildcats in the loss.

Eliminating those will not be easy, but it is a much easier task than trying to revamp the scheme or approach on either side of the ball.

Arizona went out with a plan of keeping the ball away from Oregon in the game Saturday night. It worked. Eliminating the self-imposed mistakes could have led to a different outcome against the Ducks, and that has Fisch feeling positive entering the week off.

"I like the way he controlled the ball in terms of time of possession," he said. "That's a big thing for us. If we could be physical, get negative plays, tackles for loss and be able to run the football good things are gonna come. Right now we saw the standard in the Pac-12, and we saw what it looks like. We saw what it looks like when you recruit the way they recruit for the amount of years they recruited and pretty impressive."

Arizona will practice throughout the bye week but will have next Saturday off as they prepare to open up the next portion of the schedule with a home game against No. 20 UCLA on Oct. 9.

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