SAN DIEGO - Donovan McNabb stepped up in the pocket and fired a hope and a prayer into the end zone.

The pass was the quarterback's 55th of the day and landed in the arms of cornerback Antonio Cromartie for an interception that secured the San Diego Chargers' 31-23 win over the battered and bruised Eagles yesterday at Qualcomm Stadium.

The Eagles' bid for a comeback victory had come up short, but McNabb and the team knew they had botched this one long before the fourth quarter started.

Three times in the second and third quarters they had the football inside the Chargers' 10-yard line and three times they settled for three points.

"When you have those opportunities to score, we have to pound it in there," McNabb said after matching a career high with 35 completions for 450 yards.

"You can't play games like this," he said, adding that when there are mistakes and penalties and the team only starts to play well late, such defeats are going to happen.

Running back Brian Westbrook, who had missed the previous two games after suffering a concussion on Oct. 26 in Washington, suffered another concussion and left the game in the third quarter.

Westbrook declined to answer questions on whether he would play again, in this season or any other.

"It's too early right now," coach Andy Reid said when asked about Westbrook's playing anymore. "I'm not the type of person that's going to stand up here and tell you without knowing the information.

"We're going to do everything the right way is how we're going to approach it, and take every precautionary measure that we possibly can to make sure Brian is OK. In these types of situations, football is secondary. You got to look at this kid and . . . his future."

The Eagles could point to several reasons why they lost a second straight game for the first time this season and slipped to 5-4. Costly penalties and more injuries made the list, but their failure to score a touchdown through the first three quarters topped it.

The most inexcusable of their three goal-line failures was the first one.

After an end-zone pass-interference penalty against cornerback Quentin Jammer gave them first and goal from the 1-yard line midway through the second quarter, the Eagles sandwiched two runs between an incomplete pass by McNabb and gained only two of the three feet they needed for a touchdown.

Fullback Leonard Weaver was stopped for no gain by linebacker Kevin Burnett on first down. McNabb rolled to his left and couldn't connect with tight end Brent Celek on second down. And then, for just the fourth time this season, the Eagles handed the football to Eldra Buckley and, according to the officials, he was stopped short of the goal line by Burnett.

McNabb said he thought Buckley had scored.

Reid said he called Buckley's number because it was a goal-line play the team had practiced all week.

"That was his play," Reid said. "One thing you know about him is he'll pound it up in there, and I thought we needed that right there. He'll hit it. That's what I know, but I can't sit here and tell you it worked. I'd like to."

There are a lot of things Reid and the Eagles would like and one of them would probably be a more disciplined football team.

"There were some good things in that game," Reid said. "There were some young guys in there that I thought did some good things. But you can't get in the red zone three times early and not be able to punch it in. That hurt us in the end. And penalties - way too many penalties."

The Eagles were penalized nine times for 70 yards, starting with a first-quarter holding call on veteran linebacker Jeremiah Trotter on a punt return. The play pushed the Eagles back to their 5-yard line on their first offensive series and eventually contributed to great field position for the Chargers on their first touchdown drive.

Rookie Moise Fokou was the perfect example of what Reid was talking about. He played a solid game in many respects, registering a team high of 10 tackles. But he also took another stupid penalty when he was flagged for a late hit on running back LaDainian Tomlinson early in the third quarter, turning a 10-yard gain into a 25-yard one.

That series ended with Tomlinson scoring on a 20-yard run that gave the Chargers a 21-6 lead.

The Eagles, of course, countered with a field goal, the third of the day by David Akers.

Dimitri Patterson kept the ugly pattern of stupid penalties going when he went offside on the ensuing kickoff, which tacked on 5 yards to a 29-yard return by Darren Sproles.

Eight plays later, Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers connected with Legedu Naanee for a 20-yard touchdown when veteran cornerback Asante Samuel lost track of the third-year receiver. The play put the Chargers up by 28-9 late in the third quarter.

To the Eagles' credit, they made things extremely interesting in the fourth quarter, scoring 14 straight points on touchdown throws from McNabb to rookie Jeremy Maclin and to Celek.

That left the defense with the job of getting the ball back, but it was a depleted unit going into the game because of injuries to linebacker Akeem Jordan and cornerback Ellis Hobbs, and the suspension of cornerback Joselio Hanson.

A hamstring injury forced starting cornerback Sheldon Brown out of the game for all but one series in the second half, and Rivers took the Chargers on a 12-play drive that erased all but 30 seconds on the clock and resulted in Nate Kaeding's field goal.

Several times Rivers attacked Patterson, who replaced Brown on the right side.

McNabb and the offense got the ball back one final time, but the last of his 55 passes was the end-zone interception, and once again close wasn't good enough for the Eagles.

Contact staff writer Bob Brookover at 215-854-2577 or bbrookover@phillynews.com.