It's Junior achievement day

FOXBOROUGH - It started before the Patriots took the field.

Dressed for action and with the clock ticking closer to yesterday's opening kickoff, Patriots players came together in the locker room one final time. They listened to the words of linebacker Junior Seau.

Don't get complacent, he told his teammates. Play with emotion and passion. Seize the moment.

Just as linebacker Tedy Bruschi regularly leads postgame celebrations following victories, it seems as if Seau has carved out a niche as a fiery pregame motivator.

"We feed off that," said reserve inside linebacker Eric Alexander. "You look at a guy like that and you can't help but say, 'If he can do it, and get up for games after 18 years, why can't we all do it?' "

If the mark of a true leader is not just speaking the words, but backing them up, the 38-year-old Seau only strengthened his standing among his teammates yesterday.

In the Patriots' 34-17 victory over the Browns, a performance that lacked the all-around zip the team had shown in prior wins, Seau had two interceptions, the first of which was arguably the most important play in the game - on the Browns' first drive as he gathered a tipped ball by cornerback Asante Samuel in the end zone. The Patriots led, 3-0, at the time.

"We drove it all the way down into great scoring position and came up with no points, and I think that hurt us," said Browns coach Romeo Crennel. "That kind of set a tone for the first half."

Seau added another interception in the second quarter, and the Patriots had four turnovers in all, with Samuel snaring a first-quarter interception and cornerback Randall Gay forcing a fourth-quarter fumble and returning it 15 yards for a touchdown when the outcome was already decided.

On a day in which the Patriots were lackluster at times, the spark that Seau and the turnovers provided was instrumental. With Seau, it's something that has become the norm.

"It's been tremendous," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. "Junior adds a lot of energy to our defense, to our entire football team. I think a lot of people on the team, a lot of players, coaches - all of us - respond to him. He has a great love for the game and a preparation for it as well. You can see him in practice. You see pretty much the same thing as what you see out there on Sunday.

"He's consistent. He brings it every day. I'm glad we have him. He made some big plays, but he makes plays every week and a lot of plays it's things where he'll draw something so somebody else can make it. It's not in any way all about him. He's a very unselfish player. He might be one of the most unselfish players I've ever coached."

On Seau's second interception, which came at the Browns' 48-yard line, he raced 23 yards downfield and at one point held the ball out in the open.

Belichick was at a loss for words to explain the careless ball security, but he seemed willing to cut Seau a break when he cracked "I don't know what Junior is thinking sometimes."

Seau later explained his thought process, noting that over his 18-year career he hasn't had many interception returns. Entering yesterday's game, he had 16 picks in 251 contests (including playoffs). Yesterday's two-interception effort marked just the third time he had two in a game (1993 vs. the Oilers; 1996 vs. the Chiefs).

"It's untapped territory for me, to tell you the truth," said Seau, who did not start yesterday but still played a significant number of snaps as part of a three-man rotation with Tedy Bruschi and Adalius Thomas. "I'll handle it better [in the future]. Obviously, I'm going to get a lot of kickback from the players, probably for the whole week. I didn't look too good on that one."

He looked better on the first one, which was the Patriots' first official stop inside the red zone this season after opponents had scored touchdowns on their first six trips inside the 20. The Patriots were in a zone coverage, according to Samuel, and the playmaking cornerback made the key move by passing off his responsibility in the flat and dropping back to tip the pass in Seau's direction.

Seau raced to the stands behind the end zone with the ball, this time passing his energy onto the sellout crowd of 68,756.

"That gave us a lift," Belichick said. "It seemed like we needed something to get us going a little bit."

Seau, it turns out, delivered more than once - from his pregame locker room speech to his two-interception performance.

Mike Reiss can be reached at mreiss@globe.com.