You're going to see a recurring theme in most of these sets of Power Rankings. . .you probably already know what it is, so I won't tell you right up front.
We will, however, start with a bit of a surprise, as the folks at Fox Sports have moved the Vikings up two spots to number 24 despite Sunday's 24-17 loss to the San Diego Chargers. Here's what they had to say about Minnesota.
The Vikings deserve a lot of credit for holding up against the Chargers on the road, but there aren't any moral victories in the NFL. The Vikings ran the ball well against the best defense of 2010, but they will need to get much more than 28 passing yards if they want to compete consistently.
So, in contrast to the first set of Power Rankings we saw, Fox Sports knows that the Vikings aren't as bad as they were made out to be in the pre-season by most of the experts. The Chargers have been picked by some outlets to be a Super Bowl contender, and the Vikings had a 10-point lead on them at the half until the offense shut down and the defense wore out.
I certainly don't think Minnesota's pass offense is going to be this bad all year. They're not going to be mistaken for the 1998 Vikings or anything, but they won't be putting up 39 yards every week, either.