EUGENE -- If there is anyone who ought to be used to Marcus Mariota's highlights by now, and be numb to the kind of heroics the junior Hawaiian performed Saturday night in Pullman, Wash., it should be his head coach.

Oregon's Mark Helfrich has seen Mariota pull off similar feats before, ever since he went to Hawaii to recruit another quarterback at St. Louis High School only to be convinced Mariota was the quarterback of the future.

But even Helfrich, when notified of Mariota's numbers in Saturday's 38-31 win against Washington State -- 21-of-25 passing with 329 yards, five touchdowns and 58 net rushing yards despite seven sacks -- was taken aback at just how good Mariota was.

And how No. 2 Oregon (4-0) needed every single yard to hold off the Cougars (1-3), too.

"There were four incompletions? Ridiculous. Ridiculous. That's a joke," Helfrich said Saturday after the game as he sat inside Washington State's weight room.

"That guy is special and he did a great job, too, of taking some of the blame and the heat off the o-line and led them through it and did a great job rallying the defense in the second half, as well."

One of the incompletions was purposely thrown away, on first-and-10 from the WSU 13 in the second quarter, but that doesn't do justice to the effort involved to get the ball out of bounds.

Oregon Ducks quarterback Marcus Mariota runs for 41 yards by breaking tackles at the line of scrimmage.

After using his off-hand to stiff-arm 299-pound lineman Xavier Cooper to the ground, Mariota stumbled to his right and hurled the ball away from an angle only used by submarine pitchers.

Instead of a loss of at least 10 yards, Mariota didn't allow the Ducks to lose any ground.

He hit Devon Allen for a 13-yard touchdown and a 21-14 lead on the very next play.

"I think his best play of the game was the throw away, that was unbelievable," said Scott Frost, Oregon's second year offensive coordinator.

Other contenders for Mariota's best play included his 41-yard run down the right sideline on a read option, where he burst through two arm tackles at the line of scrimmage.

Or his run of 28 yards on fourth-and-10 to the WSU 8 that set up a touchdown pass to tight end Pharaoh Brown, and a 28-21 lead, one play later.

Or any of his five touchdown passes.

He has thrown at least one touchdown pass in all 30 of his career games, the second-longest streak nationally behind Marshall's Rakeem Cato (36 games).

Together, those plays will almost assuredly keep Mariota in the lead in one Heisman Trophy straw poll, while building on his already superb September start.

Even given a night to sleep on Mariota's performance, Helfrich didn't hold back with his praise of both WSU's Connor Halliday and his own signal-caller.

"Marcus was again special," Helfrich said Sunday, "in not only his play but how he kind of kept everyone positive and rallied throughout the game."

Nationally, Mariota's 218.0 passing efficiency rating is the best among FBS quarterbacks; his 74 percent completion rate is second-best; his 13 passing touchdowns are third-most; he's tied for the lead by being responsible for 96 points thus far; his 11.8 yards per pass attempt ranks second; and his 337.3 yards of total offense per game ranks 11th.

And consider this: Mariota's tour-de-force in the Palouse happened still five weeks shy of his 21st birthday.

"Listen, I think he's the best player in college football," Frost said. "Last year we lost a game as a team and he was hurt and he dropped out of any race for anything like (Heisman). We're certainly not about team awards but there's nobody in the entire country I'd trade him for."

-- Andrew Greif | @andrewgreif