EUGENE —

On paper, Oregon was viewed as a dark horse in the Pac-12 football championship race before the season kicked off.

Justin Herbert, a coveted NFL prospect, was entering his third year as the starting quarterback. The offensive line returned four redshirt juniors with significant starting experience. Coordinator Jim Leavitt’s defense had plenty of pieces in place to take another big step.

Following the 30-27 overtime win over Washington on Oct. 13, the Ducks were in a strong position in the North Division.

After falling to 6-4 overall and 3-4 in conference play with a 32-25 loss at Utah, the honeymoon between a faction of Oregon’s fan base and Mario Cristobal seems to be over.

The Ducks’ first-year head coach was asked about the difference between the outside expectations from the view inside the team’s Hatfield-Dowlin Complex.

“I think what we all know is evidently clear, in coming to Oregon, that you have to rebuild a program,” Cristobal said during his Monday press conference. “It’s not a turnkey operation. In doing so, there’s going to be bumps in the road sometimes. It’s not going to be perfect. Are there some great moments? Without a doubt.”

Cristobal noted that his offensive front was controlling the line of scrimmage early in the season, which allowed the running game to thrive and Herbert to execute the play-action passing game at a high level.

During Oregon’s 5-1 start, the offense averaged 209.5 rushing yards with 16 rushing touchdowns. Herbert completed 63.1 percent of his passes for an average of 268.8 yard per game with 17 touchdowns and four interceptions.

The Ducks averaged 43 points and allowed 24.8 points per game during the first half of the season.

Cristobal’s team, which lost starting left tackle Penei Sewell to injury during the dramatic win over the rival Huskies, is 1-3 since.

During Oregon’s three lamentable road losses, the offense has averaged 86.3 yards rushing with one rushing touchdown. In the home win over UCLA, the Ducks ran for 200 yards and three touchdowns.

In the last four games, Herbert has completed 55.4 percent of his passes for an average of 252 yards with eight touchdowns and no interceptions.

Oregon has averaged 26.5 points and given up 32.8 points during the stretch. Defensively, the Ducks allowed an average of 361.8 yards through the first six games and an average of 444.5 over the last four games.

“We want to be consistent, we want to be perfect. It takes work and it takes development,” Cristobal said. “Those things come with preparation, it comes with execution, it comes with a lot of things that factor into growing a program and rebuilding a program back to the level that you want it to be, and then elevating it past that.”

Cristobal will face another Pac-12 rookie head coach with a 6-4 overall record when the Ducks host Arizona State on Saturday night at Autzen Stadium.

It is safe to say Herm Edwards, who had not coached at all in 10 years and not at the collegiate level since 1989, has dramatically exceeded the outside expectations for the Sun Devils, who can win the South Division by beating Oregon and Arizona to conclude the regular season.

Cristobal has his own way of saying “You play to win the games!” — Edwards’ famous press conference meme from his days coaching the New York Jets.

“When we don’t win, of course we’re going to be disappointed. We’re big on the whole Bill Parcells thing, there’s no medals for trying,” Cristobal said, referring to the Hall of Fame former NFL coach. “We highlighted to our team, when you are working hard and you are rebuilding a culture, the painful steps that come with it, you can’t skip them sometimes.”

Despite the sting of what happened this past Saturday in Salt Lake City, Cristobal believes his team took an important step forward by overcoming a 12-point deficit to take a 29-25 lead in the fourth quarter.

“Yeah, there’s progress. We’re not to where want to be, and it’s not going to magically happen,” Cristobal said. “Development, enhancing the caliber of talent at each position group, pushing everybody from a competition standpoint, coaching it better, teaching it better and galvanizing it. I tell the team, the way of the world right now is, ‘Hey, throw your hands up. Wow, this is not perfect.’

“That’s not the way we’re going to be. This requires people that will not flinch when things get tough. It requires people to have nerves of steel, thick skin and be able to go to work, and that’s what we do.”