Minnesota Vikings Week 11 Power Rankings Roundup

The winning streak for the Minnesota Vikings now stands at five, courtesy of their 38-30 triumph over the Washington Redskins at FedEx Field on Sunday afternoon. In theory, that means that they should continue climbing in the Power Rankings across the internet, but as we’ve seen, that isn’t necessarily the case. So, what do the pundits have in store for the Vikings this week?

It’s time to find out, as we go around the internet for our weekly Power Rankings Roundup. Let’s begin, shall we?

SB Nation: #7 (Last week: #8)

Starting Case Keenum in seven games made the Vikings a little hard to trust as a contender, but here they are at 7-2 with Teddy Bridgewater ready to go if they choose to turn over the reins.

Minnesota has a two-game lead over the Packers and Lions in the NFC North, a top-five defense, and an offense that’s accomplishing much more than most expected it to when Keenum was forced into action. The Vikings’ schedule isn’t easy down the stretch, beginning with the Rams next week, but there’s reason for Minnesota fans to be optimistic about 2017.

Associated Press: #6 (Last week: #5)

No Vikings-centric content from the Associated Press this week.

MMQB, Sports Illustrated: #6 (Last week: #8)

No Vikings-centric content from MMQB this week.

Frank Schwab, Yahoo! Sports: #8 (Last week: #9)

Another week of quarterback speculation for the Vikings. It’s absolutely the right move for any team to make a change, even if it’s on a winning streak, if it makes the team better. You don’t avoid improvement just because you don’t want to mess with momentum or whatever other nonsense that keeps teams from making their lineup better. The issue here is we have no idea if Teddy Bridgewater is better than Case Keenum right now. There’s no way to tell if Bridgewater is the same player post-injury, and figuring it out as you chase a division title and maybe even a first-round bye seems like a big risk. This should be Keenum’s job until further notice.

Walter Cherepinsky, Walter Football: #8 (Last week: #10)

Overrated NFL Team: Case Keenum throwing four touchdowns...? Seriously? Come on. The Vikings, as they stand right now, are overrated. However, I think they have a good chance of making a deep playoff run if they go to Teddy Bridgewater soon. Keenum seems like one of the many one-and-done playoff signal-callers we've seen over the years, while Bridgewater has what it takes to win in the postseason.

USA Today: #8 (Last week: #12)

In a season with so much league-wide adversity, the return of QB Teddy Bridgewater is easily one of the most uplifting stories of the year.

Vinnie Iyer, Sporting News: #6 (Last week: #5)

Keenum keeps building his Case as the guy for the season, and as for a QB change, there is no reason. With a thriving Thielen, there's nothing but good feeling.

This week: vs. Rams, when they'll need more offensive bam

Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk: #5 (Last week: #5)

The movie is getting good, but longstanding Vikings fans know how it will end.

Elliot Harrison, NFL.com: #6 (Last week: #6)

Quarterback Case Keenum looked as though he was playing to win the job in 2018 -- until that fourth quarter. Keenum tossed four touchdowns on the road against a Redskins team that just shut down the Seahawks. (We'll pretend those two D.J. Swearinger interceptions never happened.) Then there was Adam Thielen's performance. Make no mistake, Keenum-to-Thielen (eight hookups for 166 yards and a touchdown on 12 targets) was the most unstoppable connection on the planet -- the world -- Sunday. Those guys straight wiped out whoever was in coverage, be it Bashaud Breeland or, yes, even Josh Norman. Thielen is ranked in the top three in the league in receiving yards. It ain't fluky.

ESPN: #6 (Last week: #4)

Projected wins: 11.1. Case Keenum has the third-best Total QBR this season (72.5). He has been sacked just once since Week 4, and if he can keep up this level of play, the Vikings should cruise to 11 wins.

Pete Prisco, CBS Sports: #6 (Last week: #6)

If Case Keenum can continue to put up good numbers, like he did against the Redskins, they can beat anybody. The Rams are a nice challenge this week.

Chris Simms, Bleacher Report: #5 (Last week: #6)

Can we recognize the Vikings as a legit title contender now? More importantly, can we stop talking about replacing Case Keenum with Teddy Bridgewater?

Keenum is having a better year than Bridgewater ever did. Minnesota has the ninth-ranked offense in football (363.8 yards per game) largely because of him.

Minnesota is for real. The defense didn't play great against the Redskins, but it's one of the five best in the NFL. Latavius Murray is running the ball well. With Keenum, Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen adding punch to the passing attack, the Vikings are dangerous and a legit Super Bowl contender.

Once again, we have three outlets dropping the team from their ranking the previous week, with two of them dropping the Vikings one spot and the other moving them down two. That was more than countered by six places moving the Vikings up, including a four-spot bump from the folks at USA Today. Three outlets left the Vikings exactly where they had been the previous week, and all twelve of our sources had the Vikings in the top ten in the National Football League.

Also, if you get a chance, make sure to read the Yahoo! Sports link, as they talk about how the Vikings are the most surprising team in the NFL this year. Hard to argue against that.

Here is the visual representation of the rankings so far this season. If you’d like, you can click on the image in order to trigger its embiggening.

And that’s your Power Rankings Roundup for this week, ladies and gentlemen. If the Vikings can get their sixth consecutive victory this week, they should see a nice little bump upwards, as their opponents this weekend. . .the Los Angeles Rams. . .are above them in pretty much all of the sets of rankings that we use.