The easiest story to spin following the Dallas Cowboys’ Sunday loss in Buffalo was the difference between their home and away records. This season, the Cowboys are 7-0 at AT&T Stadium but 3-4 away from home. Although the Seattle Seahawks did the Dallas Cowboys a huge favor on Monday night to preserve their aspirations of playing at home, it’s a legitimate worry and one that might come into play in January.

Although the story of the road show is credible, a closer look at the Cowboys’ playing style is warranted.

The Cowboys deferred to the second half of their game against the Buffalo Bills after winning the coin toss. On the field, the Cowboys defense got the game underway. Regardless of whether the team gets the ball first, the game is always reduced to a one-possession score with plenty of time remaining once the opening drive is completed. It is untrue to claim that a team loses the game solely because of what happened on the opening drive.

Cowboys special teams coordinator John Fassel stated, I just don’t think the first drive or first series of the game has an influence on getting the lead and playing with the lead. I believe that dictating terms based on a first-possession touchdown is premature in this game.

We’ll return to coin tosses later, but opinions on the importance of the game’s opening drives vary depending on how teams perform and the outcomes. The Bills had the ball first on Sunday and quickly had the upper hand. Although DeMarcus Lawrence’s roughing the passer penalty helped the drive finish with a touchdown, Buffalo was already moving down the field and ready to score even without the foul. On the subsequent drive, the second play of the game for the Cowboys, Dak Prescott failed to intercept an open Brandon Cooks. The game might go differently if Cooks completes that pass and scores, or at least takes the ball deep into Bills territory. It would be misleading to attribute a 31-10 loss to a single play, but who knows how the game could have turned out if the Cowboys had responded with a score of their own on their opening drive? Rather, the Cowboys were forced to punt after a sack, and they ended up chasing the Bills for the remainder of the game.