5:25 PM ET
Todd ArcherESPN Staff Writer
IRVING, Texas – A week ago Matt Cassel was the quarterback that gave the Dallas Cowboys the best chance to win. This week it’s Kellen Moore.
The Cowboys will start Moore Sunday against the Buffalo Bills.
“He just deserves an opportunity,” coach Jason Garrett said of Moore. “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 completed 15 of 25 passes for 158 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions in eight series of work in the 19-16 loss to the New York Jets.
Cassel completed three of eight passes for 37 yards with one interception.
Cassel has 78 career starts and has thrown for nearly 17,000 yards with 101 touchdown passes and 76 interceptions in an 11-year career. Moore is in his fourth year in the NFL, but saw his first regular-season action against the Jets.
While it was far from perfect, Moore was more fluent with the offense.
“You have to do your best to evaluate what you see with your eyes and oftentimes we all can get caught up with what someone’s experience is, what someone’s resume is and those things are important. Those things matter,” Garrett said. “But you also have to trust your eyes. Scott was around him in Detroit and had firsthand experience with him and that certainly has given us maybe a little bit of an advantage in our evaluation of him and that’s why we brought him here. With the opportunities he got in practice, running the scout team, it just seems like he has a good feel for playing the game and that follows from what he’s done throughout his career at different levels. We just felt it was the right time to give him a chance the other day in the ballgame and he responded well.”
So why not make the move to Moore sooner?
“There are probably a lot of different circumstances that go into all those decisions and we just felt like this was the right time for him,” Garrett said.
For just the second time in franchise history the Cowboys will have four different starting quarterbacks in one season with Moore joining Tony Romo, Brandon Weeden and Cassel. The other time came in 2001 when Quincy Carter, Anthony Wright, Ryan Leaf and Clint Stoerner combined to go 5-11.
Weeden was winless in three starts before his release. Cassel went 1-6 as the starter.
Todd ArcherESPN Staff Writer
IRVING, Texas – A week ago Matt Cassel was the quarterback that gave the Dallas Cowboys the best chance to win. This week it’s Kellen Moore.
The Cowboys will start Moore Sunday against the Buffalo Bills.
“He just deserves an opportunity,” coach Jason Garrett said of Moore. “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 completed 15 of 25 passes for 158 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions in eight series of work in the 19-16 loss to the New York Jets.
Cassel completed three of eight passes for 37 yards with one interception.
Cassel has 78 career starts and has thrown for nearly 17,000 yards with 101 touchdown passes and 76 interceptions in an 11-year career. Moore is in his fourth year in the NFL, but saw his first regular-season action against the Jets.
While it was far from perfect, Moore was more fluent with the offense.
“You have to do your best to evaluate what you see with your eyes and oftentimes we all can get caught up with what someone’s experience is, what someone’s resume is and those things are important. Those things matter,” Garrett said. “But you also have to trust your eyes. Scott was around him in Detroit and had firsthand experience with him and that certainly has given us maybe a little bit of an advantage in our evaluation of him and that’s why we brought him here. With the opportunities he got in practice, running the scout team, it just seems like he has a good feel for playing the game and that follows from what he’s done throughout his career at different levels. We just felt it was the right time to give him a chance the other day in the ballgame and he responded well.”
So why not make the move to Moore sooner?
“There are probably a lot of different circumstances that go into all those decisions and we just felt like this was the right time for him,” Garrett said.
For just the second time in franchise history the Cowboys will have four different starting quarterbacks in one season with Moore joining Tony Romo, Brandon Weeden and Cassel. The other time came in 2001 when Quincy Carter, Anthony Wright, Ryan Leaf and Clint Stoerner combined to go 5-11.
Weeden was winless in three starts before his release. Cassel went 1-6 as the starter.
