Cowboys QB Moore given keys to offense for season’s final two games

Kellen Moore might not be the Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback of the future, but he has become their quarterback of the present. The fourth-year veteran will start Sunday against the Buffalo Bills, the team confirmed Monday.

“He just deserves an opportunity,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. “He did some good things in the ballgame, provided a little bit of a spark for us, made some plays in the passing game, moved the ball. He made some mistakes. Hopefully, he’ll learn from those mistakes. But we think he gives us the best chance to help us move the ball, score some points and win a football game.”

Moore becomes the fourth quarterback to start for the Cowboys this season, joining Tony Romo, Brandon Weeden and Matt Cassel. The Cowboys benched Weeden after he went 0-3 in relief of Romo earlier this season. They benched Cassel early in Saturday’s 19-16 loss to the New York Jets.

Cassel, a free agent in the off-season, may have played his last down in a Cowboys uniform. He went 1-6, completing 119 of 205 passes for 1,276 yards with five touchdowns, seven interceptions and a 70.3 passer rating.

“I think he can certainly influence what we do in a veteran quarterback-type situation,” Jones said on his weekly radio show on 105.3 The Fan. “I don’t know that it necessarily influences our thought process on what we might do in the draft and what we might do looking at a younger quarterback in terms of our future. So he can certainly influence us in what we do at the veteran position, but I don’t necessarily think it could change anything in terms of the draft.”

In four NFL seasons, Moore had never taken a regular-season snap until Saturday. The left-hander completed 15 of 25 passes for 158 yards with one touchdown, three interceptions and a 52.2 passer rating in his debut.

“He has not had experience in the NFL playing regular-season games, but he’s an experienced quarterback,” Garrett said. “Fifty-three starts in college [at Boise State]; he won 50 of them. He’s had success playing in preseason games when he’s had opportunities here in the NFL and typically has taken advantage of them. The reason is because he’s an instinctive guy; he’s got a good feel for playing the position. I think when you look at a number of plays in the game we saw that. Again, he needs to play more. He’s still a young player. He made some mistakes, but I thought he handled himself very well. He made some important plays for us in the game.”

Now, Moore gets a chance to start his first game. It’s only the second time in team history the Cowboys have started four quarterbacks in a season.

In 2001, Dallas had Quincy Carter, Anthony Wright, Ryan Leaf and Clint Stoerner at quarterback and finished 5-11 after a 4-10 start.

The Cowboys have struggled to win without Romo, going 7-18 with their backup quarterbacks since Romo became the starter in 2006. But Moore, because of his college record, gives the Cowboys hope in their final two games.

“I think what you see from him is obviously great instincts for the game,” Jones said on the radio. “He certainly has great anticipation. His accuracy was good. There’s a lot to like about him. At the same time, obviously there are some things that he’s going to have to improve on in terms of protecting the football. But for his first shot, you got to give him some credit. I think he showed a lot of poise. In terms of the team, he shows a lot of leadership. They seem to respond to him. I’d have to say it was pretty impressive what he did. He’s going to get some more shots obviously over the next two weeks. Hopefully he’ll take advantage of them.”

This story was originally published December 21, 2015 at 8:28 PM with the headline "Cowboys QB Moore given keys to offense for season’s final two games."