Minnesota Vikings Week 12 Power Rankings Roundup

With their sixth consecutive victory on Sunday over the Los Angeles Rams, the Minnesota Vikings may have earned themselves a new little bit of respect. The Rams were ranked ahead of the Vikings in many of the Power Rankings around the internet the previous week, and with the way the Vikings handled their business on Sunday, they were in line for a move up this week.

How far up is that move going to be? It’s time to find out, as we take a spin around the internet for this week’s Power Rankings Roundup.

SB Nation: #5 (Last week: #7)

A battle with another team that entered the week 7-2 was a real test if Minnesota is for real. The Vikings passed with flying colors in their win.

The Rams were No. 1 in the NFL in scoring with 32.9 points per game. But after scoring just seven on the Vikings, Los Angeles dropped to No. 2 behind the Eagles because the team’s average fell to 30.3 points. After a rocky game against Washington, the Vikings defense is back, baby.

Reason to be thankful: Case Keenum is actually playing well enough to keep this team chugging along.

MMQB, Sports Illustrated: #5 (Last week: #6)

No Vikings-centric commentary from MMQB this week.

Associated Press: #4 (Last week: #6)

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

Chris Simms, Bleacher Report: #4 (Last week: #5)

Should the Vikings bench Case Keenum for Teddy Bridgewater even though they might go to the Super Bowl with Keenum?

Hopefully Keenum's latest performance puts an end to this question, which is one of the stupidest I've heard over the last few years. Keenum is playing like one of the best signal-callers in the league and far better than Bridgewater ever has.

Keenum makes the Vikings offense dangerous. He has weapons in Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen. The run game has become a force to be reckoned with, and the defense is special.

That defense played well against the Rams, but L.A. did move the ball early. The game-changer came when Anthony Harris stripped Cooper Kupp on Minnesota's 1-yard line. That was a momentum-shifter, and the Vikings never looked back after that.

Minnesota is one of the best teams in football, and they continue to prove it every week.

Pete Prisco, CBS Sports: #5 (Last week: #6)

There is no need to take Case Keenum out of the lineup. With the pressure of that talk hanging over his head, he played well against the Rams. Let it ride.

ESPN: #4 (Last week: #6)

Triumph: Case Keenum has turned this season into a win for the Vikings. He has taken just one sack in his past six games and has posted the league's best Total QBR (94) against the blitz this season. He ranks second in overall QBR this season, behind the injured Deshaun Watson.

Elliot Harrison, NFL.com: #4 (Last week: #6)

I almost put the Vikings in the top three. If NFL.com allowed me to, I would have had Pittsburgh at 3a and Minnesota at 3b. These two teams are so even in terms of all-around roster, the presence of ascending defenses, how they disposed of potential playoff teams this weekend, and so on. The tiebreaker here was their head-to-head matchup earlier this season (which Pittsburgh won and otherwise means little to nothing at this point). Point is, the Vikings deserve to be at least this high after the way they performed Sunday. Case Keenum, please don't scare us like this again.

Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk: #4 (Last week: #5)

Having Teddy Bridgewater looming over Case Keenum‘s shoulder actually makes Keenum play better.

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

Case Keenum keeps needing to prove he deserves to remain the starting quarterback, and it has been master motivation. He's not close to a perfect, polished passer, but he's right for what they need to maximize their receivers and facilitate the running game.

This week: at Lions, a chance for needed Thanksgiving revenge

USA Today: #4 (Last week: #8)

Here's one of the weirdest notes of 2017 season - Minnesota hasn't lost since RB Dalvin Cook's season-ending knee injury.

Walter Cherepinsky, Walter Football: #5 (Last week: #8)

Case Keenum continues to be protected by a vastly improved offensive line, helped by three dynamic offensive weapons and aided by a great coaching staff play well, beating the Rams to improve to 8-2.

I still don't believe in Keenum, but I know what's going to happen. I'm going to keep saying that Keenum is going to cost the Vikings every single week, and Keenum will prove me wrong every single week. Then, when the Vikings are 14-2 and heading into the playoffs, I'll finally admit that I was wrong about Keenum, only to watch him score six points in a postseason loss. I guarantee this will happen.

Frank Schwab, Yahoo! Sports: #5 (Last week: #8)

How many teams have a better receiver tandem than the Vikings? Stefon Diggs is very good and Adam Thielen is on pace for 1,466 yards. There’s a reason the Vikings offense has been just fine despite Sam Bradford being out and Teddy Bridgewater still working his way back.

Yes, I don’t think we can classify the Vikings as “under the radar” any longer, unfortunately. They’re a top 5 team in all 12 sets of Power Rankings that we use in our Roundup, and every one of them moved the purple upwards this week after their defeat of Los Angeles. Where in the top five the Vikings rank is evenly divided, however. . .six of our rankings have them at #4, and the other six have them at #5.

Here is your visual representation of this week’s rankings, which you may click to embiggen in order to see it more clearly.

There isn’t a whole lot higher for the Minnesota Vikings to climb in these rankings. But hopefully when we look at this next week we’ll have a seventh consecutive win to talk about, and the people that do the rankings that comprise our Roundup will have to decide what to do with them at this point.