CHICAGO - This looked a lot like the 2007 version of the Eagles.

A game that should have been won was lost because they squandered chance after chance after chance in a 24-20 loss to the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field.

At the end of the evening, the Eagles were right back where they finished last season.

They're a .500 team at the bottom of the NFC East.

The Eagles' offense, minus Brian Westbrook and for one quarter without his qualified understudy Correll Buckhalter, had four chances to start drives inside Chicago territory and came away with just two field goals.

David Akers missed field goals of 50 and 47 yards that could have made the difference.

DeSean Jackson fumbled a punt return that gave the Bears seven points in the second quarter and ran a bad route that resulted in a Donovan McNabb interception in the third quarter. That play didn't cost the Eagles any points because Quintin Mikell came up with an interception in the end zone, but it did cost the Eagles Buckhalter for the remainder of the third quarter and he was sorely missed.

Even after all that went wrong, however, the Eagles had a chance to make everything all on their penultimate offensive possession of the evening.

Starting at their own 24, McNabb completed five straight passes for 60 yards. The quarterback's work combined with two strong runs by Buckhalter left the Eagles with a first-and-goal from the 4-yard line.

Buckhalter got to the 1-yard line on first down and the normally pass-happy Andy Reid decided the Eagles could get that final yard with some power football.

But the Bears stopped Buckhalter short of the goal line three straight times with safety Mike Brown crashing in for the tackle on fourth down to protect Chicago's four-point lead.

It was probably the most conservative play calling of Reid's tenure.

"From one foot out, you've got to score," Reid said.

"This was one that got away," center Jamaal Jackson said. "We're not trying to repeat what happened last year. "Our defense played their butts off and we couldn't do anything to complement them."

The Eagles' troubled evening started immediately.

After squandering late leads in their previous two games, the Bears came out fast against the Eagles, forcing a quick three-and-out on defense before needing just three offensive plays to take a 7-0 lead.

The Bears' defense failed to register a sack on 67 pass attempts by Tampa Bay's Brian Griese in Week 3, but McNabb was dropped on the third play of the game. Faced with a third-and-10 situation, the Eagles failed to pick up a blitz, resulting in a shared sack by safety Danieal Manning and defensive end Adewale Ogunleye.

Seventy-six seconds and three Kyle Orton completions later, the Bears had a 7-0 lead. Orton started the drive with a 35-yard pass to Rashied Davis and finished it with 19-yard strike to tight end Greg Olsen, who had slipped behind linebacker Chris Gocong.

The Eagles answered with an eight-play, 74-yard drive to even the score and suddenly an anticipated slugfest between two tough defensive teams was evolving into a shootout.

Rookie DeSean Jackson was the man most responsible for the Eagles' first score, catching two passes for 45 yards, including a 22-yard reception for his first career touchdown. Jackson also ran 21 yards on an end around, so he accounted for 66 of the 74 yards.

Jackson, however, gave those points back early in the second quarter when he fumbled away a Brad Maynard punt that the Bears' Nick Roach covered at the Eagles' 24-yard line. Chicago capitalized on the rookie's mistake and scored two plays later when Orton found veteran receiver Marty Booker for a 23-yard touchdown.

"There's no excuses," DeSean Jackson said on his muffed punt. "The wind always affects things but I cant blame it on that, I made a horrible rookie mistake."

Again, the Eagles immediately answered with a score of their own.

This time, it was Reggie Brown who did most of the damage. After failing to come up with a catch in his season debut, Brown caught a couple passes for 47 yards to give the Eagles the football at the Chicago 20. Correll Buckhalter ran a screen pass down to the 1-yard line, and then scored from there on the next play to even the game at 14-14.

The Eagles had a chance to take their first lead of the night midway through the second quarter when pressure by defensive end Juqua Parker forced a wounded-duck throw by Orton that fell into the waiting hands of Darren Howard at the Bears' 41.

Faced with a third-and-one at the 50, the Eagles tried to get the first down with a dive play to Buckhalter that backfired when fullback Tony Hunt couldn't stop penetration by defensive end Alex Brown.

Akers came on for a 50-yard field goal attempt that sailed wide right.

Blessed with good field position of their own after the miss, the Bears went 60 yards in nine plays to take a 21-14 lead. The Eagles had the Bears in a third-and-nine situation from the 20, but left them off the hook when Orton connected with Devin Hester for a touchdown. Hester had slipped behind cornerback Asante Samuel on the play.

The third quarter was all about Bears mistakes that the Eagles struggled to convert into points.

The Eagles started drives at the Bears' 35, 28 and 31-yard lines in the third quarter and came away with just two field goals. The drive that started on the 35 ended with Akers' second missed field goal, a 47-yarder that was rejected by the right goal post.

"I feel so horrible right right now, I feel like I let the team down," Akers said. "We get those six points and we win by two. That's the way I look at it."

A sack and forced fumble by Trent Cole set the Eagles up at the Bears' 28 just 15 seconds after Akers' miss. All the Eagles could get from it was a 24-yard field goal that cut Chicago's lead to four.

On the Bears' final offensive possession of the third quarter, Orton mishandled a handoff on a fake reverse that looked almost identical to the play that the Eagles botched in their Monday night loss at Dallas.

The Cowboys capitalized on the Eagles' turnover with a touchdown in that game. The Eagles settled for an Akers field goal early in the fourth quarter that cut the Bears' lead to a point.

In an attempt to kick from the ultra-dangerous Hester, who already burned them for a 51-yard kickoff return earlier in the game, the Eagles ordered a short kick by Akers. It backfired, giving the Bears the ball at their own 40.

One 17-yard middle screen from Orton to rookie Matt Forte got the Bears in field goal range and Robbie Gould connected from 41 yards to give Chicago a four-point lead.

The Eagles got within a foot of erasing that lead, but no closer and now they are a 2-2 football team at the bottom of the rugged NFC East.