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Bills vs. Jets 2013: C.J. Spiller, read-option running game All-22

If the Bills want to re-establish C.J. Spiller in their offense against the Jets in Week 11, they'll need to do a much better job in nearly every area of their base running offense than they did in Week 3, when the Jets held Spiller to nine yards rushing.

By Brian Galliford
  • (Play 1, 1 of 2) Blue circles isolate EJ Manuel and the end responsible for him on the read-option, Quinton Coples. This run play is going to the right of your screen, with Colin Brown and Lee Smith cracking back and Eric Wood and Cordy Glenn pulling to the edge.
  • (Play 1, 2 of 2) The play breaks down when Erik Pears can't effectively cut Sheldon Richardson (lower red circle), Richardson holds Kraig Urbik, preventing him from getting to the second level (upper red circle), and Demario Davis (56) meets Spiller in the hole, forcing Spiller to the sidelines.
  • (Play 2, 1 of 2) Blue circles identify Manuel and David Harris, responsible for contain on the read-option. Scott Chandler is moving across the formation to serve as a lead blocker if Manuel keeps it. Yellow circles single out Wood and Glenn, and the red circle identifies Davis. They're the key figures on this play.
  • (Play 2, 2 of 2) Wood gets a shoulder into Damon Harrison (94) before getting up to the second level, but takes a bad angle based on how Davis aligns his feet; Davis makes Wood think that Spiller is running straight upfield. Glenn, meanwhile, doesn't get his head around fast enough to pick up the unblocked Davis, who blows up the play.
  • (Play 3) Things are pretty straightforward on this run, which lost yardage: Muhammad Wilkerson (96 in blue) penetrates upfield on Erik Pears; Wood (blue circle) can't get upfield to David Harris because he's held in place by Harrison (94); Spiller has to run backwards to get past Wilkerson, and Harris cleans the play up.
  • (Play 4, 1 of 2) Blue circles once again identify the read-option players, Manuel and Coples. Glenn and Brown will double-team their defensive lineman, with one peeling up to take out Davis (top red circle).
  • (Play 4, 2 of 2) Harrison dominates Wood at the point of attack (red circle), pushing him back far enough that Spiller has to change course and run straight upfield. The double-team (blue circle) is gobbled up, leaving both Davis and Harris unblocked and in control of the two gaps Spiller can choose. Note the red arrow, indicating Coples crashing toward the run action; Manuel could have prevented a bad play with a correct read and keeping the ball himself.
  • (Play 5, 1 of 2) We've been highlighting the read-option parts of these play calls (and do so again on this play) for a reason: this was the game in which Manuel was pretty bad at making the correct reads on those runs.
  • (Play 5, 2 of 2) Wilkerson (red arrow) crashes hard toward Spiller, but Manuel gives him the ball anyway. On the play side of the base run call, Brown (blue circle) is dominated at the point of attack by Leger Douzable, who easily sheds the block (controlling two gaps in the process) to make the stop.
  • (Play 6, 1 of 2) Blue circles for the read-option again. Fred Jackson is moving behind Manuel on that side of the play as a pitch option, which the Jets pick up effectively. We'll use Kraig Urbik to highlight the issue with this play: the Jets play it to the outside (red line), because that's how the Bills had been running Spiller most of the day, when the Bills would have liked the play to move in the direction of the yellow line.
  • (Play 6, 2 of 2) Pears and Urbik have to block to the outside, accounting for Coples and Richardson, who gets far enough upfield on Urbik to direct Spiller back inside (yellow circle). Both of the Jets' linebackers, Harris and Davis, are unblocked. This play is going nowhere.
  • (Play 7) On a more traditional handoff, which the Bills don't do as much of with Spiller this year (but on which he looks more comfortable), Spiller is able to jab outside to take Harris out of the equation (blue arrows), but Wilkerson beats Glenn to get to Spiller's ankles (left red arrow), and Harrison disengages from an Urbik block to meet Spiller in the hole (right red arrow).
  • (Play 8, 1 of 2) The Jets send Davis on a run blitz (red arrow) on another more traditional running play call for the Bills. Douzable is highlighted with a red circle, lined up across from Urbik at right guard.
  • (Play 8, 2 of 2) Because of Davis' run blitz, Urbik has to slide over to take him out of the picture, leaving Pears to take on Douzable (red circle). Spiller jabs to the outside to cut upfield, where he has a big hole, but Douzable easily sheds Pears' block to stop the run at the line of scrimmage.
  • (Play 9, 1 of 2) Blue circles for the read-option again, with a blue arrow to locate another contain defender out of frame. Chandler is running a pop route off of the read-option (yellow arrow). This weak-side run looks good pre-snap, given the way the Jets have lined up; all they really need to do is account for Davis.
  • (Play 9, 2 of 2) Richardson (red circle) eats up a double-team to prevent Wood from getting upfield to Harris, who then closes off the cutback gap. The play would still be okay if Urbik can get a hat on Davis; instead, he whiffs (red X), and Davis is able to get outside to stop Spiller one more time.

In two games against the New York Jets in 2012, Buffalo Bills running back C.J. Spiller accounted for 325 yards of total offense and two touchdowns on 42 touches. His run of success against the Jets came to a screeching halt in Week 3 of the 2013 season, however, when he was held to 10 total yards on 11 touches in a 27-20 Jets win.

Spiller, of course, finds himself in the middle of a hot-button debate this week following a similarly poor performance in last Sunday's loss to Pittsburgh. Some believe that Spiller is in head coach Doug Marrone's proverbial doghouse (WGR 550's Joe Buscaglia gave compelling evidence for Marrone's unhappiness about Spiller here, here, here and here); regardless of your stance there, it's clear that Spiller is much less productive (and apparently has far less utility) this year than a year ago.

In the photo gallery above, we took a hard look at Spiller's day against the Jets in Week 3. The first thing worth noting: a lot of Spiller's runs were packaged play, read-option calls out of very similar alignments, and New York was very clearly ready for those plays. EJ Manuel made some poor reads in the read-option, Buffalo had plenty of blocking breakdowns against the Jets' stout front seven personnel, and Spiller wasn't particularly effective setting up blocks or reading holes, either.

This season, we have only seen brief stretches of the Spiller of old; he looked like his usual self against Kansas City in Week 9, for example, and prior to that had shown more than he did against either New York or Pittsburgh when playing through a high ankle sprain. There are things that the Bills can do to help Spiller - like, say, tidy up all of the issues that you see above, and perhaps be a little less predictable from a run call standpoint when he's in the game - but it's no secret that Spiller is struggling right now, as well.

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