CINCINNATI – For 50 minutes on Sunday the Chiefs played the Bengals toe-to-toe in a defensive slugfest that was perfect for the cold, cloudy, it’s about to snow-day that it was at Paul Brown Stadium.

With just over nine minutes to play, the Chiefs downed a punt at the Cincinnati two-yard line. They had turned the battle for field position at just the right time.

And two plays later, they were sitting there on a third-and-seven situation. There were just a shade over eight minutes to play.

That the Bengals won this game 17-10 and the Chiefs dropped another one in this miserable 2009 season can’t all be traced to the team’s respective quarterbacks. But that’s a good place to start.

Carson Palmer faced that third-and-seven with the Bengals offense. He dumped a shovel pass to RB Brian Leonard that picked up eight yards and the first down. It was the first of six completions (in seven attempts) that Palmer had in what became the game winning drive. He took them down the field 98 yards on 14 plays before finding Chad Ochocino for a six-yard touchdown pass.

It was the type of drive a veteran quarterback has done many times. Whether in games, on the practice field or in his head, a seven-year veteran like Palmer, who celebrated his 30th birthday on Sunday, has been there before. He’s calm, he’s cool and he’s collected. He barely acknowledges the clock; instead he stays with the current play and works that moment until it’s time to move on to the next play.

Quarterbacks are not born with the ability to lead those types of offensive charges. They learn and they learn through success and failure.

Matt Cassel can speak to the process. After he watched his former Southern Cal roommate lead that scoring drive, the ball was in his hands. There were two minutes, three seconds to play and the Chiefs took over at their 20-yard line. Cassel connected with Chris Chambers for 18 yards and then scrambled away from pressure to pick up eight yards. Jamaal Charles ran for six yards and a first down and with the clock showing 75 seconds to play, the ball at the Bengals 48-yard line.

That’s where Cassel got antsy. Instead of chipping away at those last 48 yards, he went for a home run play, throwing 20 yards down the field for Chambers. Bengals CB Leon Hall had Chambers covered. When the ball came down, it was in the hands of Hall. Game over, chance wasted.

Call it another step in the development of a quarterback. Carson is much further down the road than Cassel when it comes to being able to reach back and pull out information and memories from his past.

There is no guarantee that if Cassel had continued to dink and dunk that the Chiefs would have scored the touchdown to tie up the game. But maybe, just maybe the next time the Chiefs are in that spot, Cassel will remember what happened on a cold, windy day in Cincinnati.

That’s how you get to be an experienced and successful starting NFL quarterback.