Do-it-all Wallace longs to do it for Hawks

German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who knew nothing of 4-3 defenses or cover-two zones, but obviously understood a competitor's passion, once wrote, "Only in the rat race of the arena, does a heart learn how to beat."

He could have been speaking to every backup quarterback on every NFL team.

Rainer Maria, meet Seneca Wallace.

The Seahawks' backup is aching to feel that sweet sensation of his pulse quickening on game day.

Against the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday night, he got his first taste this season. He got the football and found his pulse.

Wallace stepped up in the pocket and found Peter Warrick open in a seam of the Cowboys' defense for a 27-yard completion.

"I like Seneca," Warrick said. "Like if anything was to happen to [Matt] Hasselbeck, knock on wood, I don't want anything to happen to him, but I think Seneca could go in there and do the job. That's what it's all about. If somebody goes down you have to have somebody step up and make the plays and Seneca can do that."

With blitzing cornerback Aaron Glenn in his face, Wallace completed a pass to Maurice Mann for a 15-yard gain, then stayed in the pocket and completed another to Mann for 22 yards, giving Josh Brown a shot at a first-half-ending 55-yard field goal that failed.

"He can play the game," Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said of Wallace. "He was one of the few bright spots on offense, to be honest with you. My feeling was that when he had a chance to do something, he did some things that were OK."

Odd as it may seem, considering that Wallace has played in only six NFL games and thrown only 25 passes, he could become one of the most important pieces in the Seahawks' post-Super Bowl season.

This is his month, the month for backup quarterbacks.

The Seahawks have to get Wallace ready. He is one Matt Hasselbeck misstep, one blind-side sack, one heartbeat away from becoming Seattle's starting quarterback.

They have this month to prepare him.

In a disappointing 13-3 loss to Dallas, Wallace, who replaced Hasselbeck midway through the second quarter, completed 11 of 17 passes for 117 yards. But the Seahawks didn't score in his two-plus quarters.

It was a wait-and-see kind of night. Wallace wasn't spectacular, but he did move the ball. He was inconsistent, but his offensive line didn't do him any favors. He was sacked four times.

"Me and Seneca, we've got a good vibe going," Mann said. "That's my boy, so playing with him is pretty much just like playing in the backyard. It's a good feeling. He looks for me.

"He was real calm and collected out there. I used to hear stories about him being kind of anxious and rattled in the huddle, but tonight he was real calm and just said what he had to say, called the plays and went out and did it."

A game like this is just part of the slow, painful growth of a young backup quarterback. A process that started at Sacramento City College in 1999, where coach Dave Griffin was known for producing productive quarterbacks.

It was Griffin who turned Wallace into a full-time quarterback.

"He was completely different from the rest," Griffin said by telephone Friday. "He had a completely different set of intangibles."

When Wallace first came to Sacramento, Griffin used him as a punt returner and wide receiver. He used him as a quarterback on short-yardage situations and on run-pass options off reverses from the wide-receiver set.

But in practices during Wallace's freshman year, Griffin saw what the Seahawks have seen.

Seneca Wallace can quarterback.

For the NFL Oliver Stones looking for a conspiracy theory to explain why the past five Super Bowl losers — New York Giants, St. Louis, Oakland, Carolina and Philadelphia — didn't make it back to the playoffs the next season, here is one possibility:

All five teams had problems with their passing games.

Kerry Collins had a horrible year with the 2001 Giants. The Rams' Kurt Warner played only seven games in 2002, and Oakland quarterback Rich Gannon only played seven games in '03.

Carolina's Jake Delhomme stayed healthy in 2004, but his favorite receiver, Steve Smith, played only one game. And last season, Philadelphia's Donovan McNabb was injured in the season opener and finally broke down after nine games.

The Seahawks need Hasselbeck to stay healthy. But if he can't, they need Wallace to stay ready.

"He's a little frustrated right now," said Griffin, who talks with Wallace about every three weeks. "He feels like it's time to fish or cut bait. He's a little nervous about a contract [next season]. He's a competitor and he wants to go out and help his team. But he also likes the organization and the community.

"He knows he has one of the best jobs in America. He knows they [Seahawks] like him. He knows the guy in front of him is no slouch. He's fully cognizant of all of that."

But Seneca Wallace wants to get on the field. Wants to play past August.

Wants to prove he has the heart to make it in the rat race inside an NFL stadium.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com