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.
“It’s not just about, ‘OK, we lost to Cal, so we’ve got to change everything,’” Fleck said. “You win, you lose. You’re gonna do what’s best for your football team. You’re gonna look at all the data, and you’re gonna dissect that. … There are a few tweaks here and there, but it’s not a reactionary tweak.”