The Minnesota Golden Gophers are looking to win No. 7 of the season and their fifth straight on Saturday afternoon when they play the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. Below, Gophers Nation gives our prediction.

Gophers Nation is predicting a fifth straight Minnesota victory. While Rutgers is coming off a bye week, we believe the Gophers have quite a significant advantage over the Scarlet Knights.

The Scarlet Knights are coming off a bye week which could result in a bit of a rejuvenation early in this game but watching the Scarlet Knights last four games prior to their bye and there were very few redeeming aspects of their performances. There was simply too much work to be done on the bye week in order to fix everything.

If the Scarlet Knights are going to get back on track they'll need their defense to take a step back up to where it was earlier this season, over their last four games, they're allowing 33.3 points per game. The offense hasn't been too much better either, averaging just 16.5 points per game.

This is a potential favorable matchup for Minnesota's rushing attack in this game. Last weekend, the Golden Gophers were able to take advantage of Illinois weaker run defense. Today, they'll face a Scarlet Knights defense that is allowing 5.1 yards per carry this season and has allowed 125+ rushing yards in six of eight games.

As we've mentioned numerous times last week, the Golden Gophers this season are undefeated when rushing for over 100-yards. We expect them to go well over that number on Saturday.

That being said, the quarterback battle is the deciding factor here today.

If the Gophers are able to manage the Scarlet Knights' rushing attack with Kyle Monangai, we do not believe that former Golden Gopher Athan Kaliakmanis has the ability to beat this Minnesota pass defense on a routine basis.

This will be the best secondary that Kaliakmanis has faced since a matchup against Washington earlier this season, in that matchup, the Illinois native completed 14-of-24 passing attempts for 115 yards and a touchdown. While he may have a higher output today, we don't expect him to come close to the 287 and 313 passing yards that he has thrown for in each of Rutgers' last two games.

On the other hand, Max Brosmer has been playing some fantastic football over the four game winning streak for the Gophers as has wide receivers Daniel Jackson and Elijah Spencer. Brosmer over he four game winning streak for Minnesota has completed 89-of-126 passing attempts, a 70.6% completion percentage for 895 yards and seven touchdowns. He's facing a Rutgers pass defense that has struggled this season, allowing 7.7 yards per passing attempt and 242.4 yards per game. Look for the New Hampshire transfer to have another strong performance.

The only advantage that Rutgers has in this game is the rest advantage but when it comes to everything on the field, this is a game that heavily favors Minnesota. We believe the Gophers don't just win on Saturday but cover the spread quite easily.

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