B737-300
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 369
Other / Unknown; Situational Awareness
Deviation - Altitude Crossing Restriction Not Met; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Human Factors; Procedure
We were given clearance to cross AKBAR at 28;000 FT.  I set the FMC but failed to set the MCP.  We received the question; 'Are you going to make the restriction?'  I looked at the FMC and mistook the distance to the fix as distance to TOD.  We started the descent knowing it was going to be close; so we asked for a vector.  The Controller said no problem and gave us a new frequency.  On the new frequency; the new Controller; prior to AKBAR; gave us a new altitude to descend to.  It was odd there was no 'reset MCP altitude' or 'unable to make altitude restriction.'
B737-300 First Officer set up the FMC; but failed to set the MCP for a crossing restriction on descent. Failure to make the crossing restriction was attributed to mistaking FMC distance to the crossing fix for the distance to Top of Descent.