Rookie running back LeSean McCoy sliced through the Bears for a 10-yard touchdown, on the series after his fumble nearly put the game out of reach.

The biggest winner was quarterback Donovan McNabb, who last week called the Eagles' return to his hometown a "must win" for the now 6-4 team, which came in having lost two in a row. McNabb, constantly under siege, sacked three times, completed 23 of 32 passes - 72 percent - for 244 yards, a pair of touchdowns, one pick, and a 101.6 passer rating. He delivered a fourth-quarter comeback, for the first time this season, and delivered a four-point victory, for a team that had been 1-8-2 in games decided by seven points or fewer.

"I thought today, as a team, we pulled together," McNabb said. Coming back to win, he said, "provides confidence for the team, to know you can rely on the guy next to you."

Somehow the Birds overcame three turnovers and several badly timed penalties, finding a running game and some critical poise late in the evening, just when they seemed doomed to sink to .500 and long-shot playoff status. Maybe, killing the long afternoon in the Windy City, the Eagles noticed that the Giants and the Cowboys both won.

"We were able to come back from a fast start and a slow middle to finish strong and fast," Eagles coach Andy Reid said. "We hadn't had a lot of luck in the close ones. This time, the guys battled through, they really didn't worry about all that, they just kept bangin'. I was really proud of them for that."

They sealed the victory when linebacker Tracy White stuck a hand in front of a Jay Cutler pass to Greg Olsen and knocked it high in the air. Safety Sean Jones made a fine diving catch near midfield, with 45 seconds left.

The Birds' first drive featured Michael Vick's most successful play as an Eagle, a 34-yard quarterback draw on third-and-1. That's one way to attack the short-yardage running problem. The drive fizzled on back-to-back incompletions, after the Eagles achieved second-and-5 from the Bears' 7. David Akers then gave the Birds an early 3-0 lead with the 25-yard field goal.

The first defensive series featured a Jeremiah Trotter first-down cameo (and run stuff), making Trot technically the starting middle linebacker, though he sat for quite a spell after that in favor of Joe Mays. It was Mays who was way out of his gap in the second quarter, leading to a 72-yard run by Kahlil Bell, just up from the Chicago practice squad, by the way, a run that set up the Bears' second field goal. Akeem Jordan, please get well soon. Trot played most of the second half, the coaching staff apparently having seen enough of Mays.

The Eagles' second series was crisp and smooth, 76 yards on eight plays and a couple Chicago penalties. McNabb hit Jason Avant for a 13-yard touchdown on an inside screen, and the Eagles had a 10-0 lead.

The Bears got back to 10-6 on a pair of field goals. The Eagles self-destructed on back-to-back series, McNabb throwing an interception when Zack Bowman stepped in front of DeSean Jackson (quite possibly interfering with him), then Jackson fumbling after a catch on a drive that should have resulted in points.

Cutler should have been picked off at least twice in the first half, but Quintin Mikell couldn't quite break on the ball both times. Another forced pass bounced off Macho Harris' hands.

The Bears converted a fourth-and-1 from the Birds' 21 as the first half clock ran down, on the drive started by the Jackson fumble. They settled for a 28-yard field goal, making the score 10-9 at halftime.

Significant stop? Well, coming into the game, the Eagles were 5-0 when leading at the half, 0-4 when trailing. Now it's 6-0 and 0-4.

The Eagles definitely missed Brian Westbrook. Rookie McCoy gained 33 yards on seven first-half rushes, then fumbled the ball away after a 17-yard ramble early in the fourth quarter. Forty of the Birds' 78 first-half rushing yards came from Vick and McNabb, McNabb scrambling 6 yards on his only carry.

"Actually, it wasn't so frustrating," McCoy said, when asked about the long fallow period. He finished with 99 yards on 20 carries. "We were moving the ball well . . . I think we were getting killed on the little stuff. A little turnover here, a penalty here."

Sheldon Brown (hamstring) played, as he'd said he would, running his regular-season consecutive games streak to 122, but Brown sat out long stretches of the first half. Replacement Dimitri Patterson took an illegal contact penalty that nullified a third-down stop. The second half began without the other starting corner, Asante Samuel, who aggravated his previous stinger. Reid said Samuel would have an MRI today. Samuel said: "I'll be all right."

"Sheldon has a hamstring tear, and he went out there against two of the fastest receivers in the league and really battled," Reid said. "My hat's off to him. He really set the tempo, I thought, during the week, with a lot of courage and toughness. I think that carried over down the stretch."

"I'll go to battle with that, any day of the week, right there," defensive coordinator Sean McDermott said of Brown. "It gives me chills just thinking about it."

Reid said Brown was sidelined after tweaking his injury but "ran on the field" when Samuel came out, before anyone could decided otherwise.

The Bears took a 12-10 lead on a 49-yard Robbie Gould field goal after a 16-yard Sav Rocca punt and a 5-yard penalty courtesy of Mays, who was downfield too soon. That's the kind of combo that often gets you beat.

"I thought the fellas did a great job of keeping their poise and knowing that we've got a chance here to score some more points," offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg said.

But then the Birds rediscovered their fast-strike mojo. Forty-eight yards, McNabb to Jackson, Jackson way behind the Bears' defense, impervious to the ineffectual wave of safety Al Afalava. Eagles up, 17-12, with 5:53 left in the third.

"It was a great situation for me and McCoy to come back with two huge touchdowns," Jackson said after catching eight passes for 107 yards. "We just kept playin' . . . We couldn't afford to lose this game."

The lead lasted 3 minutes and 1 second. The Bears got a Johnny Knox kickoff return to their 45 and scored six plays later, Cutler hitting tight end Kellen Davis on a fade, against Chris Gocong, from 15 yards. Cutler then hit Matt Forte on a two-point conversion pass for a 20-17 Bears lead.

Eagles left tackle Jason Peters, playing on a high ankle sprain that had kept him out the previous week, stumbled through a difficult night until the final drive, summed up by the tripping penalty he took that negated a 17-yard completion to Jeremy Maclin at the Bears' 40 following Chicago's go-ahead score. Peters hit the ground in front of Alex Brown, then leg-whipped him, with McNabb in no imminent danger. The penalty killed the Eagles' attempt to respond, and the fourth quarter began with them trailing.

Antonio Dixon's block of a 48-yard field goal attempt after McCoy's fumble kept the deficit at three, and the Birds got the ball at their 39 with 11:01 left.

Dixon called his shot. He felt he almost blocked Gould's 49-yarder, so he went after this one with major intent.

"I just knew I was going to block it. I told [Brodrick] Bunkley I was going to block it," Dixon said. With a push from Mays - another guy who needed some redemption - he got penetration and a big hand on the kick.

"He called it," Bunkley confirmed. "That was big for the team, man,"

Then McNabb did what his detractors claim he never does. Eleven plays, 62 yards, five-and-a-half minutes. Capper was McCoy's 10-yard rip through the left side, behind a block by none other than Peters. Key third-down conversions came on a McNabb sneak and a sharp slant to Jackson that gained 10 yards on third-and-6 from the Bears' 20, the play before the TD.

"Fourth-quarter, come-from-behind wins are big," Mornhinweg said. "It does wonders that way."

"Like Don said, it was a must win," McCoy said. He said McNabb and "everybody" talked to him after his fumble, telling him to keep his head up. "It's one of those things, man, you make a bad play, you've just got to make up for it."

For more Eagles coverage and opinion, read the Daily News' Eagles blog, Eagletarian, at www.eagletarian.com.