Minnesota Vikings Power Rankings Roundup: Week 6

With their second consecutive victory, the Minnesota Vikings are continuing to make their move back up the Power Rankings that are put out by football pundits across these vast interwebs of ours. They’re not quite approaching the heights they had reached in the early portion of the season, but they’re getting closer.

Let’s take a look at our Power Rankings Roundup for this week and see where, exactly, the Vikings find themselves.

Associated Press: #7 (Last week: #9)

No Vikings-centric commentary from the AP this week.

Walter Cherepinsky, Walter Football: #9 (Last week: #12)

Yep, same link.

SB Nation: #7 (Last week: #10)

The 3-2-1 Vikings are hitting their groove, thanks in large part to the Kirk Cousins-Adam Thielen connection that has seen Thielen record 100-plus yards in every game this season. The next few weeks will be huge for the Vikings. They play the Jets on Sunday before a big Divisional Round playoff rematch with the Saints (we’re ready to revisit the Minnesota Miracle) and then division matchups with the Lions, Bears, and Packers in consecutive games.

The MMQB, Sports Illustrated: #5 (Last week: #7)

It took six games to see any semblance of a rushing attack, and if that keeps up it could be an enormous complement to a potent passing game.

Bleacher Report: #5 (Last week: #8)

The Minnesota Vikings managed to avoid a repeat of the Buffalo debacle of a few weeks ago. The team did what it needed to do and got a 10-point win against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 6.

But beating arguably the worst team in the league by 10 points at home doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence.

It was an uneven showing from a group that was supposed to be among the best in the NFL entering the season. Kirk Cousins passed for just 233 yards and turned it over twice—including a fumble that was returned for a score.

Davenport wasn’t especially impressed by what he saw from the Vikings in Week 6:

”I keep waiting for a complete effort from this team, but this 60-minute sleepwalk certainly wasn’t it. This is the second time this year that Minny has looked all kinds of blah at home against a lousy team. And it’s getting a lot harder for me to imagine this team beating the Rams or Saints.”

We’ll find out soon enough—in two weeks, New Orleans comes to U.S. Bank Stadium.

Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk: #8 (Last week: #11)

Now that they’ve found their running game, the Vikings could be ready to make a run.

Frank Schwab, Yahoo! Sports: #5 (Last week: #6)

Latavius Murray was fantastic in a 155-yard day on Sunday. It says something about the depth of the Vikings that they can be without Dalvin Cook, and can plug in someone like Murray.

Elliot Harrison, NFL.com: #5 (Last week: #9)

No, Kirk Cousins can’t dance. Not unless you think Michael Madsen can really cut a rug. Cousins can throw the football, though, well enough to be paid every cent the Wilfs forked over to sign him. Oh, and Cousins can run for touchdowns, too. Even on a day that was far from Cousins’ most prolific, with the passing game enduring a few hiccups, Minnesota converted five third downs against the Cardinals, while Arizona converted none. That’s because the Vikes ran up and down the field, with 155 yards from Latavius Murray and 195 overall on just 32 carries. Six yards per, kids.

ESPN: #10 (Last week: #11)

Playoff chances: 54 percent. The Kirk Cousins-to-Adam Thielen connection has been a major reason for the Vikings’ success. Thielen leads the league with 58 receptions and 712 receiving yards. The last Viking to lead the league in receptions was Cris Carter in 1994, and no Viking has ever led the league in receiving yards.

Vinnie Iyer, Sporting News: #6 (Last week: #9)

The Vikings kept balling with Kirk Cousins and their defense, but it was a good development to get the rushing attack going without Dalvin Cook. They’re looking like a better version of their 2017 selves again.

USA Today: #9 (Last week: #12)

They scored their first rushing TDs of season Sunday ... and we only just learned what we’d been missing with Kirk Cousins’ celebrations.

Pete Prisco, CBS Sports: #8 (Last week: #13)

With two consecutive victories, they have righted things. That loss to the Bills a few weeks ago looks weirder by the week.

Well, all 12 precincts that reported in for this week moved the Vikings up at least a little bit. Some only moved them up one spot, while others gave them a significantly larger bump. Overall, it means the Vikings are back to being a Top 10 team across the board, and their average ranking this week comes in at an even 7, nearly a three-spot leap from last week’s average of 9.75.

Here’s a look at this week’s chart, which you may click to embiggen as always.

That’s a look at the Power Rankings for the Minnesota Vikings around the internet this week, folks. Hopefully next week we will continue to see an upward trend for the Vikings in these rankings.