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.