"Former NFL quarterback Dan Fouts cringed last week when, while broadcasting the game for CBS, he saw Matt Cassel throw the avoidable interception that ended the Chiefs' chance at victory in San Diego.

Fouts has been there and done the same thing, so he knows what a chore it can be to get past such a mistake.

"You're talking to a guy who threw a lot of interceptions," Fouts said. "Unfortunately, I was in that situation a few times. It is tough to get over it."

Fouts also won many games for his team, the Chargers — so many that he eventually wound up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Cassel doesn't have that background. It is a play that at worst can ruin a quarterback's career or at best linger in his mind for awhile.

So Cassel did the only thing he knew how to do this week. He picked up the pieces as best he could and prepared for Sunday's game against the Minnesota Vikings at Arrowhead Stadium.

"Obviously, there's disappointment," Cassel said. "Anytime you play the quarterback position in the NFL, you put yourself out there each and every play. You go out there and you try 110 percent throughout the entire game, and sometimes things don't go like you'd like them to go.

"Unfortunately, that last interception is something that you'd like to have back, but it does happen, so you've got to have a short memory.""