Minnesota Vikings Power Rankings Roundup, Week 14

Well, another week with a loss for the Minnesota Vikings is going to equal another drop in the Power Rankings across the internet. That we know for certain. The only question is just how large the drop will be this time around.

So, how low can the Vikings go? It’s time to find out, as we go through this week’s Power Rankings Roundup.

Associated Press: #15 (Last week: #13)

No Vikings-centric commentary from the AP this week.

Walter Cherepinsky, Walter Football: #14 (Last week: #14)

Kirk Cousins is now 4-24 versus teams with a winning record. Unreal. Redskins general manager Bruce Allen caught a ton of flak from dumb media people for not giving Cousins a huge contract, but Allen obviously knew what he was doing.

SB Nation: #21 (Last week: #15)

No Vikings-centric commentary from the mothership this week, and this seems like a ridiculous drop.

MMQB, Sports Illustrated: #11 (Last week: #9)

No Vikings-centric commentary from MMQB this week.

Bleacher Report: #12 (Last week: #11)

The Minnesota Vikings were a fairly desperate team heading into their Week 14 showdown with the Seahawks in Seattle.

The Vikings didn’t play like a team that was desperate. They certainly didn’t play like the Super Bowl favorite they entered this season as.

Minnesota played like a team that isn’t going to make the playoffs at all.

The Vikings were defeated 21-7 in a game that wasn’t as close as score would indicate. Minnesota’s allegedly talent-laden offense didn’t cross midfield until less than five minutes were left in the third quarter.

Even then the Vikings were afforded opportunity after opportunity to stay in this game. To steal it. And the team just couldn’t do it. Minnesota was turned away on 4th-and-goal and had a field goal blocked.

As things stand today, the Vikings are still in the postseason.

But that says a lot more about how bad a week it was for the NFC’s wild-card pretenders than it does about how good these Vikings are.

Frank Schwab, Yahoo! Sports: #16 (Last week: #12)

Kirk Cousins didn’t do much in another big game. That has been an issue all season. Another issue is that offensive coordinator John DeFilippo, who was such a hot name last offseason, hasn’t been nearly as good as last year’s coordinator Pat Shurmur. Whoever is to blame, this is a huge disappointment.

Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk: #15 (Last week: #12)

The playoffs start on Sunday.

Elliot Harrison, NFL.com: #13 (Last week: #12)

The Vikings’ slow tumble down the rankings boggles the mind. What’s more perplexing is the avoidance of Dalvin Cook. Why in the world does Minnesota ignore the running game ... in close games ... with an RB1 who accelerates through a crease quicker than Twitter blames Kirk Cousins after every bad play? Cook looked plenty rapid the few times he received a handoff in his belly on Monday night. The would-be stud tailback carried the football 13 times for a respectable 55 yards in a game that was 3-0 most of the night. So, game script had nothing to do with nothing. This after getting 9, 10, 9, 10, 10, 10 and 16 carries in his previous eight games. Thank goodness for that Week 1 workload, or else folks might speculate whether there are clauses in his contract about accepting 11 carries or more. Meanwhile, don’t get too carried away about the Vikes’ playoff prospects ...

Vinnie Iyer, Sporting News: #15 (Last week: #12)

Kirk Cousins was unable to deliver a much-needed victory in another prime-time spot, something with which he struggled in Washington. It would be nice if the offensive line and running game took some pressure off the QB. The Vikings need to break free from those early woes, stat.

ESPN: #13 (Last week: #12)

Top wish list item: The fifth seed in the NFC playoffs. After falling further behind Chicago (9-4) in the NFC North race after their loss Monday night in Seattle, the Vikings’ most realistic chance at reaching the postseason is by securing a wild-card spot. The last thing the Vikings want to do is have to host the Bears in Week 17 and turn around for a first-round game at Soldier Field the following week. They are much better off going on the road to face Dallas the first weekend of January than playing one of the top three Super Bowl favorites from the NFC.

Pete Prisco, CBS Sports: #14 (Last week: #13)

So much for all that money they spent on Kirk Cousins. They are worse on offense than last year.

USA Today: #15 (Last week: #12)

Kirk Cousins will be subject for (some) deserved criticism for their implosion, but there’s plenty of blame to go around in Minnesota.

Yep, that’s at least a one-spot drop from eleven of the twelve rankers that we use to put together our Roundup, and in most cases the drop was multiple spots. All in all, it adds up. . .or averages out. . .to the Vikings’ lowest average ranking of the season, as the big black line on the chart now sits at 14.33 (repeating, of course). Last week’s average was at 12.08, so that’s a not-insignificant drop for this stage of the season.

Here’s a look at the trends, which are getting increasingly ugly each week. If you dare to embiggen, you can do so by clicking on the picture.

There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. . .that’s the Power Rankings Roundup for this week. If we don’t see another uptick here soon, this team’s season is going to be over in three weeks and officially make this one of the more disappointing seasons in recent memory. . .you know, if it isn’t already there.