Playing the Same Team Twice

We have done that several times in the last few years (3 x since 03 we have played a regular season opponent in the playoffs... 2 times we played that team in the last week of the regular season).

What we've seen is:
-A new formation or two for the same plays
-If they have a go to guy, they will come up with another few ways to get him the ball

A lot depends on how the first game went.

in 2003, we lost the last regular season game 25-24 to the team we played in the first round. They did some different formations, but basically it was the same on offense. No change on D

In 2004 we won 50-22 in the last game and played them again first round. They ran everything they had on D (12 plays, 12 different defenses). Offensively, they ran the ball a bit more (empty passing team normally, ran 1 back some in the 2nd game). We ended up winning the playoff game big.

Last year, we lost 20-0 in mid season to our first round opponent. They were the better team, but we are a traditional power, they are not, so they did have some new wrinkles for the next game (ex: they had never run trips before, they did a few times in the playoff game). We lost 32-24... certainly had our chances to win it though.

On our end, we don't really change much, but we will look at continuing what was successful the first time and finding what was not successful and trying to exploit something they did to stop our best plays (ex. if they read our guards pulling well, we will false pull early... that type of thing).

I always hate playing a team again... especially if we won a close one (or if they just crushed us). I like getting another shot at someone who barely got by us though...

Good luck.