INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Elijah Moore seemed to want to say the words. However, the Browns wide receiver also knows well enough that it can be quite easy to put one's foot in his mouth if the timing is off just a hair.

So when Moore was asked roughly an hour after the Browns' 36-19 loss at the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday if he was in favor of Joe Flacco being the team's starter, one could almost see him trying to figure out the right way to answer.

"I feel like we had one week with him," Moore said. "You see what I'm saying? So I feel like we just got to, whoever's in there at this point — you see what I'm saying? — we just got to do our best to see what he sees and he sees what we see."

Flacco made his first start for the Browns on Sunday due to the fact rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson was still in concussion protocol. The quarterback's performance will undoubted be remembered for the way it ended — a rally-crushing interception by former Browns safety John Johnson III with 6:32 remaining that unleashed a 16-point Rams run to end the game.

However, up until that point, the 16-year veteran played up to the "Joe Cool" moniker he had earned through the years with the Baltimore Ravens despite having been on his couch in suburban Philadelphia up until two weeks earlier. Certainly, it was a performance to open the conversation of having him try to guide the Browns (7-5) into the AFC playoffs.

Flacco, though, isn't the one who is quite ready to do that now.

"Listen, I guess you can talk about that at some point and I would assume you hope that you can always learn something in these situations," Flacco said. "But I think right now it's kind of tough to sit there and reflect on positives of an outcome like that. It was one of those things that it was one of those games that you just had to stay patient and wait for it to come to you, and [I] just wasn't able to do that quite enough."

It's not going to be Flacco's decision, anyway, on whether he starts next Sunday's critical home game against the AFC South-leading Jacksonville Jaguars. That decision is going to come from coach Kevin Stefanski, the same person who wouldn't commit to Flacco against the Rams until it was evident on the Friday before the game that Thompson-Robinson was not going to clear the protocol.

So Stefanski's response to the question after the game — "I'm not going to get into that," he said — was the least-surprising thing about the Browns quarterback position all day. The most surprising may have been how quickly Flacco allowed it to become a legitimate question.

It wasn't necessarily Flacco's stat line that made it a legitimate question: 23-of-44 passing, 254 yards, two touchdowns, one massive pick, two sacks — including a safety at the end — and a 75.4 passer rating. For his teammates, it was about how Flacco handled himself through the bulk of the game.

"He was very cool, calm, and collected in the huddle, you know what I'm saying?" said tight end David Njoku, who had two catches on six targets for 17 yards. "He was learning it the right way. We just fell short."

Why they fell short is also the reason why Flacco himself stood at the podium postgame disappointed with himself. The pick by Johnson on an underthrown pass to Moore will be the thing many people look at the hardest while assessing the performance.

Flacco, himself, is at the top of the list.

"Yeah, just upset at myself," Flacco said. "Listen, I know I can play. … My thought process is just disappointed in myself. These are the games that I honestly love to be in. They come down to the fourth quarter and they're not pretty and they're going to be tight. I think I excel in the games that are played tight and need to have good decisions be made. So to not come through in that kind of situation, it definitely stings a little bit."

The game-altering pick came on the first play after the Browns had forced a Rams punt, trailing 20-19 — thanks to Dustin Hopkins' second missed PAT of the season — with 6:51 remaining. They had it at their own 21 when Flacco decided to take a shot to Moore, who finished with 83 yards on four receptions and 12 targets Sunday.

The shot to Moore, who was running a deep flag route, wasn't necessarily the first read. However, Cedric Tillman, who was running a deep out, and Jerome Ford, who was filtering out of the backfield after the play-fake, were both well-covered.

"You know what? They just kind of matched everybody up and I was in the pocket a long time and it ultimately was just a bad decision," Flacco said. "I was late throwing that pass. Really wanted to get, wanted to get Ced, but like I said, they kind of just matched everything up. I had time in the pocket, but lost track of the safety there."

Johnson, who was cut by the Browns with a post-June 1 designation in the spring, returned the pick 42 yards to the Browns 24. The Rams turned that into a touchdown pass from their own mid-30s quarterback — 35-year-old Matthew Stafford, who threw for 279 yards and three touchdowns — for a 27-19 lead with 3:48 remaining.

It never got any better. Not for Flacco — who drew an intentional grounding and two sacks, one a safety on his final six drop-backs — and not for the Browns.

"Oh, it was obviously a lot of fun to be out there and play football again, especially with those group of guys," Flacco said. "You can tell just being here a short time that it's a great locker room. So it was definitely a lot of fun to be out there. Obviously not fun in the end and how it ended."

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on Twitter at @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Joe Flacco can't look past late pick at total showing in Browns debut