Gophers’ rushing offense and run defense are two areas in glaring need of improvement

P.J. Fleck took his Gophers football team to Huntington Bank Stadium on Sunday night for practice, a detour from the usual routine at the Athletes Village. The goal for the coach was to reintroduce his team to a gamelike urgency after going through its first of two bye weeks last week.

The Gophers last played Oct. 12 when they beat UCLA 21-17 at Rose Bowl Stadium, improving to 4-3 overall, running their win streak to two games and completing a California two-step with wins over the Bruins and then-No. 11 USC to get the season pointed in a positive direction.

Fleck welcomed the week off as a chance for banged-up players to heal and for he and his staff to do a deep look at how they can improve the team in all three phases – offense, defense and special teams.

“When you get to the bye week, the No. 1 thing for a team is to get healthy,” Fleck said. “… The No. 2 objective was to get better at the things we’re not very good at, and then to keep mastering the things we are. … And then No. 3 was obviously to get out recruiting and to self-scout. We were able to do that.”

The Gophers begin a five-game sprint to the end of the season with Saturday’s 2:30 p.m., homecoming game against Maryland, which is 4-3 overall and one game behind the Gophers in the Big Ten standings at 1-3. Like Minnesota, the Terrapins have an upset win over USC, rallying for a 29-28 triumph with a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns on Saturday.

Since Maryland joined the Big Ten in 2014, the Gophers and Terrapins have split six meetings. The winning team has scored in the 30s three times, the 40s twice and the 50s once, so the recent run of play would suggest teams come armed with a potent offense if they want to win this game.

The Gophers are hopeful that the changes made from their self-scouting can unlock some more points. Minnesota averages 20.8 points in Big Ten play, which ranks 11th among 18 teams. Under quarterback Max Brosmer, they’ve shown the ability to rally – with the New Hampshire graduate transfer leading six fourth-quarter touchdown drives over the past three games. Running the ball has been a struggle at times, with the Gophers 16th in the Big Ten in rushing yards, averaging 87.8 yards per game.

Much of the offensive inconsistency sits on an offensive line that’s committed 16 penalties, per Pro Football Focus, but also has kept Brosmer mostly upright.

“When we fire off the ball and we know what to do and we know where we’re going, we’re pretty good,” Fleck said. “We’re playing against some really good defensive lines, though. I mean, nobody’s just going to allow you to run the football. For the most part, our pass [protection] is doing a really good job against who we’re facing and what we’re facing.”

The Gophers rank second in the Big Ten in total defense (262.3 yards allowed per game), second in passing defense (139.6) and fourth in scoring defense (15.9 points allowed per game). Where opponents have thrived is against Minnesota’s run defense, which ranks 11th at 122.7.

Minnesota’s defense has been opportunistic, leading the Big Ten with a plus-8 turnover margin. Fleck wants more.

“I know that we’re doing really well in that department right now, but when you look at the games we don’t win, we don’t get enough takeaways,” Fleck said. “We’ve got to play complementary football.”

Improvement on special teams down the stretch will be important for the Gophers, especially if they continue to play tight games. Dragan Kesich, last year’s Big Ten kicker of the year when he made 23 of 27 field-goal attempts, is mired in a slump this year, going 7-for-13.

They’ve received a boost in the return game from true freshman Koi Perich, who leads the Big Ten with a 15.4-yard average on punt returns.

“We’ve had some things that we’ve opened our eyes that we can do better, but also things that we haven’t had in a while that have really helped us make special teams even more of a game-changer,” Fleck said.