The Minnesota Golden Gophers are winners of four-straight and will look for win No.7 of the season on Saturday afternoon when they travel to Piscataway, New Jersey for their second-straight road matchup.

The Golden Gophers will be taking on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights who are entering the week off a bye week but have a four-game losing streak hanging over their heads after a 4-0 start to the season.

Minnesota has opened as a near touchdown favorite over the Scarlet Knights. Below, Gophers Nation takes our first look at Rutgers.

WHERE: Piscataway, NJ

STADIUM: SHI Stadium (52,454)

TIME: 11:00 A.M. CT

TELEVISION: NBC

ODDS: Minnesota oepned as a 6.5-point favorite over Rutgers. Over/under is currently set at 47-points.

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights got off to a great start this season and appeared to be on track for a potential breakthrough season under head coach Greg Schiano. After picking up wins over Howard, Akron, Virginia Tech, and Washington to start the season, a 14-7 loss to Nebraska in early October sent the Scarlet Knights into a tailspin.

Since that loss to Nebraska, the Huskers have fallen to Wisconsin (42-7), UCLA (35-32), and USC (42-20). The bad news for the Scarlet Knights is that their last four games will be difficult as well with a matchup not just against the red-hot Gophers but also quality opponents in Maryland, Illinois, and Michigan State.

Now fresh off a bye week, Rutgers will hope that the week off will allow them to reset both emotionally and physically before

This offseason, Athan Kaliakmanis left the Golden Gophers program and left for what he hoped would be green pastures in Piscataway. Rutgers also hoped to have an upgrade at quarterback after suffering through poor quarterback play for the majority of the Greg Schiano era.

The results have been generally mixed for Kaliakmanis. This season, the Illinois native has completed 54.1% of his passes for 1,650 yards and nine touchdowns while throwing five interceptions. However in recent weeks, he has significantly struggled completing just 86-of-170 passing attempts in conference play for 1,004 yards. He also has thrown three interceptions to four interceptions in the Scarlet Knights five conference matchups.

For comparison, last season as the Gophers starting quarterback, Kaliakmanis completed 53.1% of his passes for 1,838 yards and 14 touchdowns to nine interceptions.

When it comes to stopping or slowing down the Minnesota offense, it mainly comes down to one key. Stopping Kyle Monangai.

This season, Monangai has been spectacular as usual, 172 carries for 931 yards and 10 touchdowns. His 980 yards from the line of scrimmage is 500 more than the next closest Scarlet Knight in Dymere Miller. This season, Rutgers is 3-1 when Brow rushes for over 100-yards, their lone loss coming several weeks ago to the UCLA Bruins. After averaging 147 yards over Rutgers' first four games of the season, the veteran tailback is averaging just 85.5 yards over the four-game losing streak for Rutgers.

To build off the Scarlet Knights 3-1 record this season when Monangai rushes for over 100-yards, the same can be said about his career as a whole. When Monangai is able to get past the century mark, Rutgers is 8-3. When he fails to rush for 100+ yards while receiving at least 10 carries, the Huskers are 5-6. It's not a death sentence by any means if he struggles but it puts a ton of pressure on a quarterback like Athan Kaliakmanis to have to win the game for the Scarlet Knights which is something he hasn't been able to consistently show that he can do.

Despite Rutgers being in the Big Ten for a decade now, this will be just the fourth time the two sides meet on Saturday. Their previous matchups came in 2016, 2019, and 2022. All three games resulted in Minnesota wins, the latter two coming in blowout fashion. After narrowly beating the Scarlet Knights in 2016 by a final score of 34-32, the Gophers have delivered dominant wins in their last two games by a combined score of 73-7. The Scarlet Knights are the lone team that remains in the BIg Ten that the Gophers have an undefeated record against.

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