ActionScript 3.0 :: Any Way To Get TextField Recognized Without Instance Name

I'm trying to have action script recognize a text field without me having to give it an instance name. All is fine at first because i wrote custom errors to show if Flash doesnt find a text field on the stage, and no errors come up. I know that my errors work because when I remove the text field from the stage all the errors appear. The problem arises when I try to manipulate the text field through AS that I right on the main timeline. When I do then I get that old 1119 undefined property error.

Here's my code.
package com.nate.ui {
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.events.Event;
import flash.net.*;
import flash.text.TextField;
public class TextArea extends Sprite {
[Code] .....
And here is just my trace (on the timeline) that throws up the 1119 error.
trace(ta.textField);