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MINNEAPOLIS -- For half a game, they were the same old Minnesota Vikings, the high-flying offense that broke the NFL scoring record.

Then it all vanished, along with their Super Bowl aspirations.

Unstoppable all season, the Vikings fizzled offensively after building a 20-7 lead late in the second quarter of Sunday's NFC championship game. That shocking failure, and Gary Anderson's first missed field goal in more than a year, led to their shocking 30-27 overtime loss to the Atlanta Falcons.

"Our offense was supposed to have been so explosive, but we just couldn't make it happen in the clutch," said receiver Randy Moss, the exciting rookie who had fueled Minnesota's scoring binge this season.

The disappearance of Moss in the second half was perhaps the biggest key for the Vikings, who were playing in the NFC title game for the first time in 11 years and trying to get back to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1976 season.

Moss, who led the NFL with a rookie-record 17 touchdown catches this season, had five catches for 71 yards as the Vikings built their 20-7 lead on Anderson's field goal with 2 minutes, 45 seconds left in the second quarter. He had just one catch for 4 yards the rest of the way.

"They were taking me out of the game," Moss said. "When you take a guy out of the game, other people have to step up."

For the first time this season, no one did.

Minnesota's only points after halftime came on Matthew Hatchette's 5-yard touchdown catch with 13:41 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Vikings, who were favored by 11 points, led 27-17 at that point.

They had the ball five more times after that, but were able to sustain only one more drive.

That came after their unsung defense, badly depleted in the second half by injuries to linebackers Ed McDaniel and Dixon Edwards and with All-Pro defensive lineman John Randle limited because of a bad knee, stopped the Falcons on downs at the Minnesota 24 with 6:07 left in the fourth quarter.

The Vikings led 27-20 at that point and embarked on what looked like the clinching drive. Robert Smith, stuffed all day by Atlanta, carried five times for 45 yards -- he had 15 carries for 27 yards before that drive -- to help the Vikings to a second-and-6 at the Atlanta 20.

The drive stalled, but the Vikings still had Anderson, their "Perfect Man," lining up for a clinching 38-yard field goal attempt.

Anderson had made all 94 of his kicks during the regular season, including 35 field goals, and he was 7-for-7 (with two field goals) in last weekend's win over the Arizona Cardinals.

But this attempt sailed barely left. That gave Atlanta life, and they drove to the tying touchdown with 49 seconds left in regulation.

Still, the Vikings won the coin toss in overtime (Atlanta called "heads" but the coin came up "tails") -- but they fizzled again.

"Offensively, I think we did all we could do," quarterback Randall Cunningham said. "We didn't have anything left in us."

The Vikings managed just one first down on each of their overtime possessions before Morten Andersen finished them with his 38-yard field goal with 3:08 left in the first overtime, silencing the raucous crowd of 64,060, the largest ever to see a playoff game in Minnesota.

"The thing I'm disappointed about right now is with the lead we have and with the explosive offense we have, we didn't make it happen," said Moss, who was bothered -- but he said not slowed -- by a stomach injury.

The loss made the Vikings the first team to go 15-1 in the regular season without winning the Super Bowl. San Francisco won it in 1984 and Chicago in 1985, and the Vikings seemed almost a lock to at least get their after scoring 556 points in the regular season and routing the Cardinals 41-21 last weekend.

Playing in a conference championship game for the first time in his 13-year career, Cunningham seemed to be most affected by Atlanta's determination to prevent the quick strike by taking away Moss.

The NFL's top-rated passer during the regular season, Cunningham was 15-for-21 for 144 yards and a touchdown, a 31-yarder to Moss, to help the Vikings to a 20-14 halftime lead.

But he finished 29-for-48 for 266 yards. He didn't throw an interception, but he lost two fumbles -- neither really his fault. The first helped the Falcons back into the game late in the second quarter. The second, at the Vikings 30 with 7:30 left in regulation and Minnesota up 27-20, didn't hurt the Vikings as the defense stopped Atlanta on downs.

That's when the Vikings responded with their drive to set up Anderson's stunning miss. And that turned out to be all the spark that was left in the most potent offense the NFL has ever seen.

"Maybe in some respects, that makes it even more disappointing," said Anderson, struggling to contain his emotions in the Vikings tomb-like locker room. "We had such tremendous expectations, that makes it 10 times more disappointing."