SAN DIEGO - Battered and bloody after absorbing 28 points worth of punches from Philip Rivers and the Chargers, redemption was just one drive-stop away for the Eagles' defense yesterday afternoon.

The Eagles, who had trailed by as many as 19 points, had climbed back to within five with 7:12 left in the game when Donovan McNabb hit tight end Brent Celek with a 6-yard scoring toss.

Now, it was up to the defense. Now, they had to shut the Chargers down and get the ball back to McNabb and see if he had a fourth-quarter comeback in him.

"We felt we had the momentum at that point and were riding high," said strong safety Quintin Mikell, whose unit had forced the Chargers to go three-and-out on their previous possession for only the second time in the game. "But we just couldn't get them off the field."

A 5-yard pass from Rivers to fullback Mike Tolbert, then a 10-yard completion to wide receiver Vincent Jackson for a first down. Tick, tick, tick.

Pressure from defensive ends Trent Cole and Juqua Parker forced an incompletion, then cornerback Dimitri Patterson stopped tight end Antonio Gates after a short 4-yard completion and they had the Chargers where they wanted them - third-and-6.

But then Gates, the six-time Pro Bowler who the Eagles had managed to keep in check most of the game, found himself open due to a communication error by the defense and gained 17 yards and a first down with just over 4 minutes left and the Eagles' comebacks hopes started to unravel.

"We had a matchup designed to have Quintin Mikell cover Gates on that play," said defensive coordinator Sean McDermott. "Due to an execution situation, that didn't come to fruition. That was the guy we wanted to take away."

Just before the snap, the Eagles switched the coverage on Gates. Instead of Mikell taking him, Patterson was supposed to pick him up. But he didn't get over in time to prevent the completion or the first down.

"We made a check in the secondary that we probably shouldn't have made in that situation," Mikell said. "At the time, it seemed like a good idea. But in hindsight, we made a mistake on it. If we could do it over, we probably would make a different check."

There still was time to stop them and get the ball back to the offense. But back-to-back 4-yard runs by LaDainian Tomlinson gave the Chargers a makeable third-and-2 at the Philadelphia 33.

Tomlinson came into the game averaging just 3.2 yards per carry. But he had a season-high 96 yards against the Eagles on 24 carries and his success left the Eagles guessing on third-and-2.

"They ran the ball better than we thought they would," said Patterson, who had played in just three games this season, but opened yesterday's game as the Eagles' nickel corner due to Joselio Hanson's suspension and Ellis Hobbs' season-ending spine injury.

When Sheldon Brown went down with a hamstring injury early in the second half, Patterson suddenly was the team's right corner, and Ramzee Robinson, who was out of work before the Eagles signed him last Tuesday, suddenly was the nickel back.

"We didn't stop the run early. And when you don't stop it early, now you don't know what you're going to get [on third-and-2]," Patterson said.

What they got was a pass. Wide receiver Legedu Naanee on cornerback Asante Samuel. Naanee, who had been in motion, took a 5-yard pass from Rivers in front of Samuel, then sped past the bad-tackling cornerback for an 18-yard gain that allowed the Chargers to squeeze all but 30 seconds off the clock before Nate Kaeding booted a 29-yard field goal.

"We had a man coverage on and we just had a bust in the coverage," McDermott said of the completion to Naanee. "It came down to execution again.

"Bottom line, we didn't get the ball back to our offense. We let them convert two crucial third downs on that last drive."

McDermott's defense looked like Davy Crockett and the undermanned Texicans at the Alamo. Against one of the league's top passing offenses, they didn't have Hanson or Hobbs. They didn't linebacker Akeem Jordan (hyperextended knee). And then they went and lost Brown.

If they had managed to stop the Chargers on that last drive, we might be talking today about their gutsy game-saving performance. But we're not.