Five takeaways from P.J. Fleck’s news conference: Changes coming ahead of trip to Oregon

When we last saw the Gophers football team, they rallied from seven points down in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter to force overtime, then secured a 23-20 victory over Michigan State on quarterback Drake Lindsey’s mad dash to the pylon on a naked bootleg.

Since then, coach P.J. Fleck’s squad went through its second bye week of the season, giving them extra time to prepare for Friday night’s game at No. 7 Oregon.

“We wanted to find a way as best we possibly can to get our guys healthy, mentally, physically and emotionally,” Fleck said during his weekly news conference Monday. “It’s not just the physical piece. When you get to November, it’s the mental piece, it’s the emotional piece. There’s a lot of demand on student-athletes from a lot of different areas. So. I thought we were able to accomplish that, too.”

Here are four other takeaways from Fleck’s media availabilities on Monday:

The Gophers have played against two of the nation’s top defenses this season, falling 42-3 to Ohio State, which leads the nation in total defense (211.6 yards allowed per game), and 41-3 to Iowa, which ranks fourth at 250.2.

Oregon slots in between those two, giving up 239.4 yards per game, which ranks third.

The Ducks (8-1, 5-1 Big Ten) are coming off Saturday’s 18-16 victory at Iowa in which they “out-Iowaed” the Hawkeyes.

Oregon benefitted from an errant Iowa snap on a punt that led to a first-quarter safety and a red-zone fumble by the Hawkeyes’ Kaden Wetjen in the third quarter.

“Can you do what it takes to win a football game?” Fleck asked about the Ducks. “Can you go out and beat a team through the air that you’re going to have to throw for 400 yards? Yes, they can. Can you go into Kinnick [Stadium] and beat Iowa, playing Iowa’s game, and run the ball and get down and dirty. Yep, they sure can. …. They’re as balanced of a team as we’ve seen."

Oregon sophomore quarterback Dante Moore has completed 70.5% of his passes for 1,844 yards and 19 touchdowns with five interceptions. He also has rushed 44 times for 177 yards, making defenses think about that dimension of his game.

“He’s one of the most dynamic players in all of college football,” Fleck said. “That’s pretty easy to tell. He’s very, very poised. I mean, you saw that on the last drive against Iowa.”

The Gophers have played once on the West Coast this season, falling 27-14 to California on Sept. 13 in Berkeley, Calif. Fleck said he’s made adjustments to the schedule that the Gophers used in that trip, in terms of dealing with the two-hour time-zone change.

The Gophers lead the Big Ten and rank sixth nationally with 32 sacks but that hasn’t translated into turnovers. They are tied for 80th nationally with five forced fumbles.