Five takeaways from P.J. Fleck’s news conference: All comes down to this

The weekend trip to Chicago didn’t go the Gophers’ way as Northwestern rallied from a 15-point third-quarter deficit to beat Minnesota 38-35 on Saturday at Wrigley Field. Two days later, coach P.J. Fleck held his weekly news conference, reviewing the loss to the Wildcats and looking ahead to this week’s regular-season finale against Wisconsin at Huntington Bank Stadium.

The Gophers defense was the main focus Monday, and that’s because Minnesota surrendered 525 total yards and 25 second-half points in falling to 6-5 overall and 4-4 in the Big Ten.

Here are five takeaways from Fleck’s media sessions:

Fleck breaks down evaluations of his team in terms of schematics, coaching and personnel. He pointed to the latter two as the issue against Northwestern.

“It’s a very similar defense to what we’ve played for 13 years,” he said. “So, it’s not the schematic piece [at issue], but the coaching piece and the personnel piece. Yeah, there’s some things we have to do better.”

Fleck pointed to mistakes made by inexperienced players in the lineup.

“We line up on the wrong side, and that’s a young-person mistake,” he said. “We fit the wrong gap, young-person mistake. But they’re going to grow from that.”

Drake Lindsey, the redshirt freshman starting at quarterback for the Gophers, might have had his most impressive game of the season. Lindsey completed 20 of 30 passes for 264 yards and a career-high four touchdowns. When the Gophers got the ball back with 45 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Lindsey immediately found Javon Tracy for a 30-yard gain to the Northwestern 26. A 4-yard pass to Jalen Smith with three seconds left set up the would-be tying kick.

“Drake’s playing at a really high level,” Fleck said. “He can always continue to get better, but I keep saying it, but it’s poise, it’s command, it’s maturity, it’s leadership, it’s the ability to throw people open. … Some of his throws are at a 500 level, and he’s only a redshirt freshman."

After Northwestern took a 38-35 lead on Jack Olsen’s 33-yard field goal with 53 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Gophers kicker Brady Denaburg had a chance to send the game to overtime, but he missed a 40-yard field-goal attempt wide left as time expired.

Denaburg also missed a 48-yard attempt in the third quarter. The Syracuse transfer is 13-for-19 on field goals this year, including 2-for-7 from 40 yards or longer.

“That’s the life of a kicker, right?” said Fleck, who indicated he will stick with Denaburg as his primary kicker. “And sometimes you make them, sometimes you don’t, and you’re probably going to learn way more from the ones you don’t than the ones you do.”

“He played really well,” Fleck sad. “Tony is another developmental player that he’s finally at a part where I think he can handle more and more consistently, but he’s worked his butt off in the weight room. He’s worked his butt off with Coach [Brian] Callahan on his fundamentals and techniques. … He’s earned the opportunity to play more."

In the past three weeks, Wisconsin has knocked off No. 23 Washington 13-10 and No. 21 Illinois 27-10. This after the Badgers endured a 0-6 stretch that included losses to Alabama, Michigan, Iowa, Ohio State and Oregon. That has Fleck’s attention.