SB Nation Minnesota - Week 2 NFL Power Rankings: Where Do The Minnesota Vikings Rank?https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/48959/mn-fave.png2011-09-14T12:49:11-05:00http://minnesota.sbnation.com/rss/stream/21874892011-09-14T12:49:11-05:002011-09-14T12:49:11-05:00Week 2 NFL Power Rankings: ESPN Drops Vikings Four Spots
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<p>The folks from Bristol, Connecticut have never really had anything resembling love for the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.dailynorseman.com/">Minnesota Vikings</a>, and that doesn't change much in this week's installment of their <a target="_blank" href="http://espn.go.com/nfl/powerrankings/_/year/2011/week/2">NFL Power Rankings</a>. ESPN, who had the Vikings ranked at 20th in their pre-season rankings, moved Minnesota down four spots to #24.</p>
<p>The analysis? Stop me if you've heard this one before, but it centers around Minnesota's passing game.</p>
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<p>It's hard to win when your QB (<span>Donovan McNabb</span>) throws for 39 yards.</p>
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<p>Gee, you think? Well, this is the sort of insight you expect from the proverbial "worldwide leader."</p>
<p>Say it along with me, ladies and gentlemen. . .Donovan McNabb is not going to throw for 39 yards every week. . .Donovan McNabb is not going to throw for 39 yards every week. . .Donovan McNabb is not going to throw for 39 yards every week.</p>
<p>Hopefully the Vikings' game next week. . .win or loss. . .will have a little bit more variation than what we've gotten this week so far.</p>
https://minnesota.sbnation.com/minnesota-vikings/2011/9/14/2425370/week-2-nfl-power-rankings-espn-drops-vikings-four-spotsChristopher Gates2011-09-14T12:33:56-05:002011-09-14T12:33:56-05:00Week 2 NFL Power Rankings: SI.com Moves Vikings Up Slightly
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<p>One of the other places that chose not to penalize the Vikings for their Week 1 performance was <a target="_blank" href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/don_banks/09/14/week.1/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_t11_a2">SI.com</a>, whose Power Rankings are written by Don Banks. Banks, who had the Vikings at 28 in his final pre-season rankings, moved Minnesota up one spot to #27 this week.</p>
<p>The theme of his commentary? Well. . .second verse, same as the first.</p>
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<p>Oh, the indignities that <span>Donovan McNabb</span> has suffered in the past 10-11 months. In a week in which the NFL set a new record for the most combined passing yardage with 7,482, McNabb could only manage to contribute 39 of those. And his team still only lost by seven points on the road. Imagine if No. 5 had showed up at all?</p>
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<p>Yes. . ."imagine if #5 had shown up at all," indeed.</p>
<p>I'm not sure how many different ways I can say it, but I don't think Donovan McNabb is going to be this awful the rest of the season. . .and if he is, he won't be the starting quarterback of the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.dailynorseman.com/">Minnesota Vikings</a> for much longer.</p>
https://minnesota.sbnation.com/minnesota-vikings/2011/9/14/2425329/week-2-nfl-power-rankings-si-com-moves-vikings-up-slightlyChristopher Gates2011-09-14T09:46:01-05:002011-09-14T09:46:01-05:00Week 2 NFL Power Rankings: Football Outsiders Puts Vikings At 18th (or 19th)
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<p>Football Outsiders is known for doing things a little differently than a lot of other football sites on the internet. The folks at Football Outsiders analyze every single play of every single game to put together their rankings on offense, defense, and special teams to come up with something called DVOA, or <b>D</b>efense-adjusted <b>V</b>alue <b>O</b>ver <b>A</b>verage. In order to account for it being this early in the season, they also have something called DAVE, or <b>D</b>VOA <b>A</b>djusted for <b>V</b>ariation <b>E</b>arly, which takes pre-season performance into account as well.</p>
<p>Got all that? Okay, let's move along.</p>
<p>Football Outsiders currently has the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.dailynorseman.com/">Vikings</a> at 19th in their <a target="_blank" href="http://www.footballoutsiders.com/dvoa-ratings/2011/week-1-dvoa-ratings">DVOA rankings</a>, and 18th in their DAVE rankings, which means that they think the Vikings are right around average, despite their showing on Sunday. Right now, they have the Vikings at 26th in Offensive DVOA (apparently there were six offenses in the NFL this past Sunday that were worse), 18th in Defensive DVOA, and 3rd in Special Teams DVOA.</p>
<p>If you're curious as to how these methods work, the folks at Football Outsiders <a target="_blank" href="http://www.footballoutsiders.com/info/methods">explain all of it right here</a>.</p>
https://minnesota.sbnation.com/minnesota-vikings/2011/9/14/2424951/week-2-nfl-power-rankings-football-outsiders-minnesota-vikingsChristopher Gates2011-09-14T09:27:41-05:002011-09-14T09:27:41-05:00Week 2 NFL Power Rankings: CBS Sports Drops Vikings Five Spots
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<p>One of our favorite sets of Power Rankings here at SB Nation Minnesota comes from Pete Prisco at CBS Sports. They're not our favorites because they're particularly insightful or anything like that, but because it becomes more and more clear every time Prisco posts anything that he doesn't have the slightest clue what in the heck he's talking about.</p>
<p>For now, Prisco has moved the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.dailynorseman.com/">Vikings</a> down to number 28 in his most current Power Rankings, down from 23 prior to the opening week NFL games. (I can only assume that had the Vikings held on to win, Prisco would have found a way to drop them more.) What did he have to say about the Vikings?</p>
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<p><span>Donovan McNabb</span> was terrible against the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/teams/san-diego-chargers">Chargers</a>. One more of those and it could be time to go to <span>Christian Ponder</span>.</p>
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<p>Yep, McNabb was terrible on Sunday. As we've already stated <i>ad nauseum</i>, it's doubtful that he will have a game that bad again all season long.</p>
<p>Prisco is one more person that has somehow managed to place the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.stampedeblue.com/">Indianapolis Colts</a> higher than the Vikings. A full six spots higher. . .although the Colts wound up dropping 10 spots this week, because Prisco had a team that he knew would be without <span>Peyton Manning</span> ranked as the 12th best team in the NFL.</p>
<p>Yeah, I think we're going to continue having a lot of fun with Mr. Prisco's Power Rankings again this season.</p>
https://minnesota.sbnation.com/minnesota-vikings/2011/9/14/2424922/week-2-nfl-power-rankings-cbs-sports-minnesota-vikingsChristopher Gates2011-09-13T20:14:46-05:002011-09-13T20:14:46-05:00Week 2 NFL Power Rankings: Fox Sports Moves Vikings Up Despite Loss
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<p>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.</p>
<p>We will, however, start with a bit of a surprise, as <a target="_blank" href="http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/powerRankings">the folks at Fox Sports</a> 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.</p>
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<p>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.</p>
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<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
https://minnesota.sbnation.com/minnesota-vikings/2011/9/13/2424087/week-2-nfl-power-rankings-fox-sports-moves-vikings-up-despite-lossChristopher Gates2011-09-13T14:59:27-05:002011-09-13T14:59:27-05:00Week 2 NFL Power Rankings: SB Nation Ranks The Vikings Way Too Low
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<p>For the best Vikings' coverage you'll find anywhere, be sure to check out <a href="http://www.dailynorseman.com" target="new">The Daily Norseman</a>.</p> <p>Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. . .it's time to take a look around the internet at the various sets of Power Rankings to see where the pundits have ranked the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.dailynorseman.com/">Minnesota Vikings</a> in the grand scheme of things across the National Football League.</p>
<p>We start, as we usually do, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2011/9/14/2424805/nfl-power-rankings-week-2">with the folks at the mothership at SB Nation</a>. Naturally, after the Vikings' 24-17 loss to the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/teams/san-diego-chargers">San Diego Chargers</a> on Sunday afternoon, they don't have the Vikings ranked terribly high. However, they have Minnesota ranked at number 31 out of the 32 NFL teams, which is nothing short of absolutely ridiculous, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Here is what they have to say about Minnesota.</p>
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<p>QB <span>Donovan McNabb</span> looked terrible. WR <span>Percy Harvin</span> helped make this game look close but with McNabb playing like that, it's hard to see them winning many games.</p>
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<p>Okay, I get that not a lot of people are on the Vikings' bandwagon. Fine, totally acceptable. But to say that they're the second-worst team in the National Football League after they battled to the end of the game against a Super Bowl contender from the AFC on the road? You have to be freaking kidding me. McNabb isn't going to look like that all season long, and the team was up by 10 going into the half, with San Diego's only scoring drive going a whole six yards.</p>
<p>SB Nation has the Vikings ranked behind the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.stampedeblue.com/">Indianapolis Colts</a> (who were down 34-0 at halftime against Houston and never had a chance of winning), the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.dawgsbynature.com/">Cleveland Browns</a>, and the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.arrowheadpride.com/">Kansas City Chiefs</a>, among others.</p>
<p>The Minnesota Vikings might not be a great team or anything like that. . .but they sure as heck aren't the second-worst team in the National Football League.</p>
https://minnesota.sbnation.com/minnesota-vikings/2011/9/13/2423418/nfl-power-rankings-week-2-2011-minnesota-vikings-sb-nationChristopher Gates