"That was not intended to be a curtain call for Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel at the end of the third quarter Sunday. It was a cleanup call.

Chiefs coach Todd Haley actually pulled Cassel from the game for a series and planned on sending him back out in the fourth quarter — whether backup Brodie Croyle played well, or whether he threw an interception on his third snap, as he did in the Chiefs' 34-14 victory over Tennessee.

"It was a strategic area I felt had to get cleaned up," Haley said. "I have complete faith in Brodie, and it didn't hurt Brodie to get some playing time, but we had to get something cleaned up strategically with Matt."

Neither Haley nor Cassel would explain exactly what had to be cleaned up, but it was hard to find much fault in Cassel's performance.

He came out firing, completing his first eight and 10 of his first 11 passes as the Chiefs scored on their first four possessions for a 24-0 lead.

For the day, Cassel completed 24 of 34 for 314 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions and a spiffy 128.8 passer rating.

And he needed to come out for a series?

"Coach just made the decision that we had to fix a few things on the sidelines, so he brought me off," Cassel said. "He wanted to talk about a few specific things for when I went back in, and we did."

Cassel, taking advantage of pristine pass protection, completed passes to eight different receivers, starting with a 21-yard toss to Dwayne Bowe on the first play of the game against a Titans defense stacked to stop the run.

"The offensive line gave me a tremendous amount of time, and I was able to sit back and go through my reads," said Cassel, who was sacked just once by a Titans rush that ranked eighth in the NFL in sacks coming into the game."