Cowboys-Bills: Five things to watch

This matchup has a lot of history, but not many games.

Dallas and Buffalo have met only nine times in the regular season and twice in the Super Bowl. The Cowboys beat the Bills 52-17 in Super Bowl XXVII and 30-13 in Super Bowl XXVIII. Dallas leads the overall series 8-3.

That was then. This is now.

Neither team is heading to the postseason.

Dallas (4-10) will start its fourth quarterback in Kellen Moore on Sunday. Buffalo (6-8) has some in-house issues that include its first-year coach Rex Ryan.

Moore’s debut

Kellen Moore makes his first career NFL start, and all eyes will be on the undersized southpaw to see how he handles it. Given his college career, Moore shouldn’t be intimidated, but it has been a long, patient grind to get to this point. By ending the season well, Moore could make a case to be the Cowboys’ backup going into next season. He’ll have to do it without injured wide receiver Dez Bryant, who didn’t make the trip to Buffalo.

Ground game

Darren McFadden is 102 yards away from his second career 1,000-yard rushing season. That would be a nice personal accomplishment for McFadden, but he would rather have wins. To do that, though, the Cowboys have to establish a rushing attack against the Bills to open up the passing game for Moore and the receivers.

Stopping Bills’ attack

Buffalo has the top-ranked rushing offense in the league, although it will be without leading rusher LeSean McCoy (knee). Still, the Cowboys have to find a way to slow down the Bills’ running game, which includes quarterback Tyrod Taylor (who ranks second on the team in rushing).

Takeaways

The lack of turnovers has been a constant storyline for the Cowboys. A cornerback (Terrance Mitchell) finally got an interception last week. Dallas remains on pace to set a league record for fewest takeaways, as it has nine on the season. The fewest in league history is 11, and you can rest assured that the defense doesn’t want to end up with that dubious distinction.

Milestone meter

Lucky Whitehead needs 4 rushing yards to surpass Rocket Ismail for the most by a receiver in team history. Jason Witten needs one catch to set a franchise record for consecutive games with a reception. Safety Barry Church is 19 tackles away from surpassing his career-best 147 (2013).

This story was originally published December 26, 2015 at 5:58 PM with the headline "Cowboys-Bills: Five things to watch."