Seneca Wallace knew his second-quarter interception for a touchdown was one of the key plays in Sunday's loss to Kansas City.
"I don't like throwing interceptions," said Seneca Wallace (here avoiding the rush of the Chiefs' Alex Magee, "and obviously when you do, you end up putting the offense at a bad disadvantage. ... My main objective is to not put us in bad situations and I did that today."CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Seneca Wallace took the heat for Sunday's 16-14 loss to the Chiefs because of the pick-six he threw in the second quarter that put the Chiefs up, 10-7.
"It was just a bad, bad mistake by me," said Wallace, who started in place of Jake Delhomme, inactive with his right ankle injury. "I take full responsibility for what happened today. It was a ball I know I shouldn't have thrown out to the flat and I did. It was late. Those are mistakes we can't have."
Wallace dropped back, looked around, hesitated, and then threw to Chansi Stuckey in the right flat. Cornerback Brandon Flowers capitalized on Wallace's indecision, jumped in front of Stuckey and swiped the ball, running it back 33 yards for the TD.
"You have to go out there and be aggressive, but you can't be dumb-aggressive like I was," said Wallace. "They pretty much walked away with a win today because of my mistake. I'll make sure I don't make those mistakes twice."
Wallace, who admitted on Friday that "it's a crash course" every time he steps on the field because everything is so new, has never been one to throw picks. In his seven seasons in Seattle, he threw 25 TDs against only 14 picks. In 2008, the year he started a career-high eight games, he threw 11 TDs and only three INTs.
"It's always tough," he said. "I don't like throwing interceptions and obviously when you do, you end up putting the offense at a bad disadvantage and the defense has to go out and try to get you out of the hole. My main objective is to not put us in bad situations and I did that today."
Stuckey assumed some of the blame, as well.
"I couldn't see the guy who was there," he said. "I'm running the flat route and I was just trying to protect the ball and the defensive back made a good break on the ball. We've just got to communicate better. It's on both of us."
Wallace, who may start more games while Delhomme recovers, didn't get as much help from his receivers as he could have. On his opening drive, tight end Evan Moore and Stuckey dropped back-to-back passes to force a three-and-out. With just under three minutes left and the Browns trailing, 16-14, Wallace threw a superb deep sideline ball on third down to Mohamed Massaquoi, who lost it as he hit the ground. The Browns had to punt with 2:41 left and never got the ball back.
"I've got to better job of coming down with it," said Massaquoi. "I wasn't able to secure the catch."
Overall, Wallace completed only one pass each to the top two receivers: one to Massaquoi for nine yards and one to Brian Robiskie for 12.
"They're going to continue to keep working hard," said Wallace. "They're great receivers and I'm not worried about them at all."
Still, Wallace had his moments. He scrambled away from pressure and found Josh Cribbs with a 65-yard TD pass down the deep middle in the second quarter. He completed 16 of 31 attempts for 229 yards with one TD and one INT for a 73.2 rating.
"[The Cribbs TD] was a good play call," said Wallace. "We looked at the sheets on the sideline and knew it was going to be a big play. Cribbs made a good play getting open, catching it and running after the catch."
Cribbs, who led the Browns with 74 receiving yards on three catches, was impressed with Wallace.
"Seneca's awesome," said Cribbs. "With his athletic abilities, I know he's capable of doing so much more."
Browns coach Eric Mangini also praised him. "Seneca came in and took Jake's place in the second week of the season and operated effectively," he said. "The guys believed in him."
Wallace agreed that it was something to build on.
"I feel all right," he said. "I ain't going to say I feel the best, because there's a ball I wish I would've had back. There were some things I did well and some things I did bad. You've just got to make the changes and come back next week and move forward and have a better outing."