PHILADELPHIA — Don’t count out the Bears quite yet.

Desperately needing a victory to stay in the NFC hunt, Chicago’s BrianGriese connected with Muhsin Muhammad for 15-yard touchdown pass with 9 secondsleft to lift the Bears to a 19-16 win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sundaynight.

The Bears didn’t even need Devin Hester to bail them out of jam with anexplosive return. Instead, the final, thrilling drive was all Griese.

The Bears (3-4) were pinned on the 3-yard line with 1 minute, 57 secondsleft and trailing 16-12. Griese completed a series of short passes over themiddle that got the Bears quickly gaining yards after nearly 58 minutes ofnothing but stagnant football.

Hester, the dynamic kick returner, had been shut down on special teams andwas a non-factor on offense until Griese found him for a 21-yard gain thatbrought Chicago to the 15 of Philadelphia.

Griese spiked the ball to stop the clock and found Muhammad on second downfor the winning score. Griese was 21 of 47 for 322 yards.

The Eagles (2-4) have a long path ahead if they want to even think aboutreturning to the playoffs, much less winning a second straight NFC East title.

Kickers had scored all the points over the first 55 minutes because bothoffenses sputtered in the red zone. The normally rowdy Eagles crowd was lulledinto acting like this one was a preseason game until Donovan McNabb ralliedPhiladelphia from a 12-9 hole.

He ended the TD drought with a 13-yard pass to Matt Schobel with 4:57 left.

McNabb completed passes of 23 yards to Kevin Curtis and 15 yard to ReggieBrown on the drive, putting the Eagles inside the 20 for the fourth time. Thefirst three trips ended in field goals, predictable considering the Eagles hadscored only five touchdowns on 19 red zone possessions entering the game.

Those wasted chances came back to cost the Eagles.

The Bears caught a break in the fourth on a bad snap that seemed disastrous,but instead turned out to be only a 5-yard penalty. On an apparent bit ofmiscommunication, Olin Kreutz’s snap sailed past Griese and was recovered bysafety Sean Considine, who took off running.

Because the ball was snapped beyond a quarterback under center, the play waswhistled dead and Chicago was hit with a false start. The Bears settled forRobbie Gould’s 45-yard field goal that ticked off an upright for a 12-9 lead.

Chicago had its own issues near the goal line.

Two of Griese’s passes, one to Hester in the first half and to Greg Olson inthe second, were broken up in the end zone by cornerback Sheldon Brown. Griesedropped a snap on third-and-goal at the 1 and the Bears settled for Gould’s22-yard field goal early in the third.

Not that the Eagles offense was doing anything thrilling. Their offense hasbeen downright sluggish since scoring 56 points in a win against Detroit. Theyscored only 19 points in the last two games combined and wasted long drivesagainst a battered Bears defense that was picked apart last week by Minnesota.

Instead, Philadelphia settled for field goals of 24, 33 and 37 yards fromDavid Akers and led 9-3 at the half.

The Eagles kept the ball away from Hester, who had an 81-yard touchdowncatch and an 89-yard punt return for a touchdown against the Vikings. The Eagleskicked away from the explosive return man and he had no return yards.

McNabb’s numbers — 21-of-34, 226 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions — suffered from several dropped passes that stalled drives.