Corey Bradford celebrates his game-winning TD catch with a Lambeau Leap.

"Basically, it was a man call, and he beat me," Hitchcock said, referring to the winning touchdown from Brett Favre to Corey Bradford with 12 seconds to play. "I let him in the end zone. I take full responsibility."

"You can't put that on any one player," Moss said. "You can't blame (Hitchcock). This is the NFL, things like that happen."

Running back Robert Smith, who ran for 85 yards in 21 carries, had a different take on the situation.

"There's a lot of things we could have done during the game so we wouldn't have only been up four points at that time," Smith said.

Moss, in his second season, burned the Packers during the two-game sweep last year as a rookie. On Sunday, he was limited to two catches for 13 yards, but one came with 1:56 to play and was good for 10 yards and a touchdown, putting the Vikings up 20-16.

"I wasn't too jumping up and down, thinking we'd won the game," Moss said. "Then you give it to a magician (Favre), and he worked his magic. When I saw that ball leave his hand, I was worried."

Favre's 23-yard floater went right to Bradford, who got behind Hitchcock and into the end zone for the winning catch, delighting most of the 59,868 fans in Lambeau Field.

"It was fourth down, and I thought we had the game won," said Moss, who didn't seem upset by the lack of balls thrown his way. One that he thought was a touchdown was ruled a bobble out of bounds.

"If I don't touch the ball, it doesn't matter. It only bothers me when we lose," he said.

The Vikings also lost a week earlier, to Oakland.

"The second week in a row we got smacked in the mouth," Moss said.

"It's a tough game to lose," added wide receiver Cris Carter. "But time after time you see that happen. This was kind of like a playoff game.

"We're starting to find our groove. In a game like this, people think you're going to score 40 points. That's not the case. Brett Favre probably is the best quarterback in the league, and they didn't go up and down the field."

Vikings tackle Todd Steussie said he doesn't think things will get any easier at home next Sunday against Tampa Bay.

"Things need to get better," he said. "It's obvious we need to score more points. Our defense played great. The scoreboard doesn't reflect how well we played. Both of us had to fight and scrap. ... Unfortunately, they had the ball last."

The Vikings slipped to a 1-2 record. Last year, they went 15-1 and lost in the NFC Championship Game to Atlanta.

"One-and-two isn't 3-13," said Smith. "This game's over with. It's just as important to put the game behind after a loss as it is a win. It's definitely not time to start panicking.

"But we thought we had the game won. It was a tough change of emotion."

Steussie, asked to compare this year's Minnesota team to last year's, said, "There's not going to be any 15-1 teams this year."

Moss said there's no need for comparisons.

"We're not trying to duplicate last year when we went 15-1," he said.

Favre and Bradford saw to that Sunday, much to the dismay of Hitchcock. "I just got beat," Hitchcock said.