‘Superheroes’ save Gophers in their fourth-quarter comeback against Purdue

P.J. Fleck had superheroes on his mind Saturday night.

It was nearly midnight, and his Gophers football team had staged an improbable fourth-quarter rally to defeat Purdue 27-20 on homecoming at Huntington Bank Stadium.

A team that had been outrushed 239 yards to 16 through three quarters somehow found a way to outscore the Boilermakers 14-0 in the game’s final 7:47, giving the remaining people in the announced crowd of 49,254 who didn’t try to beat the traffic an uplifting finish to the night.

“When you have a perception of a player in your head, you expect that person to be that way all the time,” Fleck said in his postgame news conference. “We live in that world, right? Spider-Man is going to come save the day. Batman is going to come save the day. That’s America.

“We live in a comic book world at times where good always wins out, and we’re looking for that play to be made and that superhero to come in there.”

Thing is, Fleck had three of his Gophers play a superhero role against Purdue. Let’s call them Batman, Robin and Captain America.

For the past two seasons, third-year sophomore Kerry Brown has been the Robin at safety to the Batman of Koi Perich, the true sophomore from Esko, Minn., with the rock star following and flair to match it. They are both tremendous players, and Saturday, it was Brown’s turn early to put his stamp on the game.

“Kerry Brown’s interception was absolutely unbelievable,” Fleck said. “What a catch he made. Who knows what the game looks like if he doesn’t pick that down on the 1-yard line?”

Through the better part of 3½ quarters, the Gophers offense couldn’t get going, especially in the run game.

They turned to screen passes — Drake Lindsey’s 40-yarder to Darius Taylor and a 24-yard TD to Le’Meke Brockington — to cut Purdue’s early lead to 10-7 in the second quarter.

Lindsey didn’t have his best game, going 21-for-45 for 232 yards and two touchdowns with one interception, but he displayed the leadership the Gophers needed, especially in the second half.

With the Gophers down 20-13 with 14:14 left in the fourth quarter, Lindsey put his Captain America stamp on the game.

The redshirt freshman QB took advantage, hitting Jalen Smith for 14 yards to the Purdue 36. The Gophers faced fourth-and-2 from the Boilermakers 28, and Lindsey’s moxie came into play.

Flushed from the pocket, Lindsey scrambled to his left, pump-faked to freeze Purdue defensive end CJ Nunnally IV and raced 3 yards to move the chains.

“Everything [passing-wise] was shut down, so I just saw one-on-one on the boundary, liked my leverage and made a little play with the ball, and then got the first down,” Lindsey said.

Lindsey found Javon Tracy on third-and-10 for 16 yards to the Purdue 9, absorbed another facemask and found tight end Jameson Geers for a 4-yard TD that tied the score 20-20 with 7:47 to play.

“I was doing backflips, I was so happy,” Gophers defensive end Anthony Smith said.

Perich had a rough game in a loss at Cal on Sept. 13, but he needed only 7 seconds after Geers’ TD to put his Batman stamp on Saturday’s game.

On Purdue’s next play from scrimmage, Perich gave a blitz look to quarterback Ryan Browne. He dropped back slightly into coverage and leapt and snared the ball at the Boilermakers 27 after Browne released it. Perich beat Browne to the right pylon in the end zone, and the Gophers had a 27-20 lead.

“I was just reading the QB’s eyes,” Perich said. “Ultimately, he threw it to me, and it was, ‘Just go make a play.’ ”

The Gophers needed to make a few more plays — stopping Purdue on downs at the Minnesota 7 with 1:56 to play, then surviving three plays in the final 14 seconds from the Boilermakers 39 — to improve to 4-2 and 2-1 in the Big Ten with Friday night’s home game against Nebraska next.