In the aftermath of a potentially season-altering win over Iowa on Saturday, Gophers football coach P.J. Fleck referenced a conversation he had with Illinois coach Bret Bielema about how to beat the Hawkeyes.
Bielema, who went 3-2 against Iowa while at Wisconsin and led Illinois to an ugly but effective 9-6 win last year with the Illini, counseled Fleck on the commitment to a patient strategy needed to defeat the Hawkeyes — something Fleck had never done before Saturday.
"As tempting as it is, as frustrating as it is at times, you've got to stick with it," Fleck said, adding that against Iowa a team needs to "play the long game" to win.
It worked just well enough for the Gophers, who used four field goals and a controversial (but correct) overturned punt return for a touchdown to win 12-10. Playing the long game might, in fact, be the mantra right now of several teams in Minnesota who seem to be benefiting from patience — as I talked about on Wednesday's Daily Delivery podcast.
*For Fleck's Gophers, the long game doesn't just apply to Iowa. It pertains to their season as a whole. They've yet to play a great or fully complete game this season, but the victory in Iowa City was the closest they have come.
If that's a sign of internal progress, a hallmark of many Fleck seasons, what was looking like a lost season could instead give way to renewed talks of a realistic Big Ten West title.
*That should sound familiar if you're a Vikings fan. Three wins in four games after an 0-3 start, and particularly Monday's win over San Francisco, have changed the narrative from "trade everyone and tank for a quarterback" to "hey, the upcoming schedule is really soft and the playoffs are still very much within reach."
For amusement, I plugged in six wins over the final 10 games into the New York Times Upshot playoff graphic — very doable if you look at the schedule — and it spit out an 88% chance the Vikings make the playoffs if they do that and finish 9-8.
