On this day in 2014: The M00N Game
I'm really, truly sorry to remind everyone that this game actually happened, but I was thinking about this in context of some of the utterly ridiculous first halves we've seen this year: we used to get full games of that. And, unlike this year, the results DID reflect our (in)competence those years.
The M00N Game finally, mercifully ended on a 2 point conversion attempt after NW scored a desperation-time TD and went for the win. Trevor Semien slipped and fell to put us all out of our misery, but, as the NW SBNation site pointed out...Michigan had that play sniffed and snuffed from the get-go. 10-9 Michigan.
Inasmuch as ANYONE deserved to win, it was Michigan.
Fun fact: the M00N Game was Brady Hoke's final win at Michigan. That seems fitting.
We've come a long long way since then.
November 8th, 2022 at 12:43 PM ^
I remember this game very clearly. It was the game that I realized I didn't care anymore. My wife and I had a babysitter because we got babysitters during football season to go out and watch the game. About end of first quarter I realized that I did not want to be watching it and that I didn't care anymore. It was a really bad feeling. I'm glad that feeling is gone.
November 8th, 2022 at 1:05 PM ^
It would be interesting to know, from those who did lose hope, when was the moment that the hope came back?
For me, the moment Jim was hired. Things were bad at times after, especially during '20, but from his hire, and then especially before the season began last year, when there was just that new feel among the men, it felt like we would inexorably end up where we are now (and better/further, to be honest—we're winning it all, probably this year, maybe another, but we will).
If you're one who had lost hope/caring and now has it, what were the moments/times for you, when it came back/accelerated?
November 8th, 2022 at 1:27 PM ^
In basketball, it was when Zach Novak screamed and lost his shit and was bleeding... someone on the men's bball team finally had a f*ing pulse.
I never stop loving UM football, but it was pretty pretty rough for a while. I'm glad we're on the path we are on now and for every 3 complaints i have, i have to remind myself 70000 times where we were just 5-10 years ago.
That said, the day harbaugh came on, was the day my energy went six to midnight
November 8th, 2022 at 1:40 PM ^
Aneurysm of Leadership
November 8th, 2022 at 1:27 PM ^
Ironically enough, Hope returned the following year against Northwestern for me. That is what was so hard about the MSU game in 2015 and how it happened. Hope finally came back and then Doom returned and reminded me to never, ever, EVER have hope again. It was only gone for a week though, and it came back on the goal line stand against Minnesota after the bye week.
November 8th, 2022 at 1:28 PM ^
For me as a long time lions fan my soul was prepared for however long the darkness lasted. It was never about W/L for me. THEN the Anderson news dropped and the fact that Bo probably knew to some degree. That rocked my fandom in a way that will probably never come back. I look at M now as any other school. Sure they claim to be better, they try I guess, but the mystique is gone and can't come back. Now I care about the W/L. If you're not going to be a beacon of integrity as I falsely led myself to hope for then you better fuckin WIN.
November 8th, 2022 at 3:46 PM ^
It was also the Harbaugh hiring for me - I was pretty sure that even if he didn’t win right away we’d at least look competent and not embarrassing. I had definitely hit apathy midway through 2014.
Hasn’t been the smoothest ride, and 2017 started a slow drop in confidence that bottomed out in 2020. I don’t think I was as down as some as that whole season just seemed so off for so many teams. I don’t think I put the BPONE to bed until the Erik All catch and rumble against PSU 2021.
November 8th, 2022 at 4:13 PM ^
I knew it was back to stay when I heard "FINALLY" from the announcer right after we beat Ohio. That was exactly how I felt.
November 8th, 2022 at 12:44 PM ^
AND there was a lunar eclipse today.
AND it was a blood moon lunar eclipse, just like watching that game made my eyes bleed.
Weird...
If I was superstitious, I'd probably be reading some weird shit into this right now.
November 8th, 2022 at 12:46 PM ^
Second fun fact: Dave Brandon had already "quit" by this game.
November 8th, 2022 at 2:30 PM ^
I wonder if all the people he told to have a happy life actually did..
November 8th, 2022 at 12:48 PM ^
I wish last weekend was a N00O game for OSU. Yes, I wish bad things upon them. This game was so bad, I had a hard time watching any sports for a while. Glad we are no longer that team And I hope we never get that far down.
November 8th, 2022 at 12:49 PM ^
How appropriate that there was an eclipse last night.
November 8th, 2022 at 12:51 PM ^
M00N is right there with my least favorite wins:
Illinois 2010 (67-65)
Indiana 2014 (63-47)
Akron 2013 (28-24)
Air Force 2012 (31-25)
(all of the service academy wins, tbh)
November 8th, 2022 at 12:54 PM ^
Rutgers triple OT 2020?
November 8th, 2022 at 3:50 PM ^
No way man, I was through the roof after that one. Then I realized how sad it was that I felt that way about beating Rutgers. 2-4 was still way better than 1-5 with a loss to Rutgers.
November 8th, 2022 at 1:17 PM ^
Illinois 67-65…man I remember when that game was over I felt I needed a shower.
November 8th, 2022 at 1:51 PM ^
I was at that game as a 17-year-old kid who wasn't that into football, so at the time it was an incredibly exciting game that we came out of with a win.
After a decade of learning about football, yikes.
November 8th, 2022 at 1:58 PM ^
yeah Army 2019 (24-21) is definitely up there.
November 8th, 2022 at 3:01 PM ^
I dont know if Akron will ever be topped. Service academy scaries are somewhat understandable nationally. Akron was a terrible MAC team. It was so bad
November 8th, 2022 at 12:52 PM ^
My spidey senses tell me that you're not "really, truly sorry to remind everyone". Kind of like the guy who loves to tell the story to his dinner companions all about the time he once ate bad shrimp. Yeah, like that. 😉
(bad game, some bad years)
November 8th, 2022 at 12:53 PM ^
The irony from this debacle is it contained in my opinion one of the greatest special teams plays I've ever seen successfully executed. Within all the bewildering incompetence of that game we were somehow able to get the FG team on the field, lined up and successfully make the game winning FG with four seconds left on a running clock.
Edit: I have been corrected that this particular play occurred in 2013, not the MOON game, so my bad all. FWIW they were both shitty games played by two shitty teams which we both won. As to why they were both at Northwestern in back to back years I guess we'll have to ask Dave Brandon.
November 8th, 2022 at 12:59 PM ^
I remember that play. I was very impressed how the holder slid in.
November 8th, 2022 at 1:32 PM ^
Drew Dileo.
I'm still waiting for the flag on that play. It just doesn't look like we were set.
November 8th, 2022 at 12:59 PM ^
That was 2013. And I'm still astounded that the refs let it stand. There's a good argument that Michigan wasn't "set".
November 8th, 2022 at 1:50 PM ^
It actually looks like everyone was set.
November 8th, 2022 at 1:02 PM ^
Wrong game. That was 2013, the first of two consecutive games in Evanston, another low-scoring affair (at least in regulation, which ended 9-9), that ended 27-19 in 3OT...
November 8th, 2022 at 1:03 PM ^
i was waiting for a penalty flag to be thrown for not having everyone set before the snap
also i remember Dileo's slide being longer than that. somewhere between 7-29 yards
November 8th, 2022 at 1:19 PM ^
That was 2013 and the kick sent the game into OT where UM won in 3OT 27-19
November 8th, 2022 at 12:53 PM ^
I went to Evanston and got M00Ned.
Very traumatic!
November 8th, 2022 at 1:27 PM ^
Me too! Strange take, I know, but as humiliating a win as it might have been, I actually really enjoyed attending that game! Nailbiter game, albeit low-scoring, and dramatic win. Much better than the other NW game I attended, the 54-51 (or something) loss in around 2001.
November 8th, 2022 at 12:56 PM ^
Obligatory:
November 8th, 2022 at 3:39 PM ^
That video reminds me of this one, for some reason.
November 8th, 2022 at 12:57 PM ^
I'm really, truly sorry to remind everyone
I read this in a voice in my head like that of a "genteel" serial killer speaking softly and comfortingly to a victim he's strapped to a table and disemboweling alive.
No, you're not sorry and you're a sick bastard.
November 8th, 2022 at 12:58 PM ^
I attended that wretched game. It was amazing in a sick, weird way.
November 8th, 2022 at 1:09 PM ^
I was there too. It was the car crash that you couldn't turn away from.
November 8th, 2022 at 1:28 PM ^
Agreed! I was there, too, and somehow enjoyed the drama of it (and relative low stakes)
November 8th, 2022 at 4:25 PM ^
Same here. Both teams were bad so I got great 40-yard line seats around mostly NW fans (which was nice for my NW fan wife). Fans of both teams were just laughing at this game the entire time. It was a lot of fun all things considered.
November 8th, 2022 at 12:59 PM ^
So apparently we played in Evanston two years in a row, 2013 and 2014 (completely forgot that). Because the 2014 M00N game isn't to be confused with the 2013 game, that which featured such memorable moments as an eight(!) yard NW punt that gave us the ball at the NW 11 yard line (and for which we still only managed a FG), and the Drew Dileo baseball-slide-hold Gibbons FG as time expired to tie it 9-9 and send it to OT, where we ended up winning 27-19...
November 8th, 2022 at 1:03 PM ^
Here's Brian's post-game as well.
Infamy is Immortality Too
November 10th, 2014 at 11:56 AM
11/8/2014 – Michigan 10, Northwestern 9 – 5-5, 3-3 Big Ten
November 8th, 2022 at 2:05 PM ^
Thanks for that. Time heals all wounds (also, Jim Harbaugh). Thank goodness Harbs was hired a month later
A comment that aged like milk: "I don't think anyone is going to remember this as the MOON game except Brian and the hard-core followers. "
November 8th, 2022 at 3:36 PM ^
lol@ that comment. that game is forever cemented in my mind as the M00N game.
November 8th, 2022 at 4:25 PM ^
Brian makes an indirect reference to the PSU @ IU game in that writeup. I attended that game --- it featured 1 offensive TD (an out-of-nowhere 92 yard TD run from a PSU team that otherwise had 36 rushes for all of 70 yards), 4 turnovers, a combined 7-34 on 3rd down conversions, a combined 2-4 on FG attempts, both teams passing under 50% for the game, 17 penalties, 20 punts and 20 total points.
I thought it was the ugliest football game I had ever seen. Until we went back to the tailgate and put U-M @ Northwestern on.
The 2014 B1G East was so so so so brutal. Rutgers, Maryland, PSU, Michigan and Indiana played a combined 10 games between them and every single one of them was a mess.
November 8th, 2022 at 1:07 PM ^
I got free tickets to this game from my uncle and witnessed this in person. It was the most painful and confusing game I've ever witnessed in person. I've coached High School football at multiple levels, played CFB at a couple of the lower levels (D3 and D2) and have never bared witness to something so mind boggling. What a weird fucking game.
November 8th, 2022 at 1:07 PM ^
I was there! Took my oldest son and my ex. Great memories…even with the ex.
November 8th, 2022 at 1:27 PM ^
I travelled with my partner from Toronto for that, she got dressed in the colors, we took the train down to the stadium, was having a blast. Then came the game. She said, " you brought me here for that? It was her first game and I thought to myself, I just spent around 3000 bucks to watch that? What a waste, at least the Tomahawk steak at RPM steakhouse was on point. Good times!
November 8th, 2022 at 1:35 PM ^
I live in Chicago: RPM is still completely on point. Haven't had the tomahawk though.
November 8th, 2022 at 1:28 PM ^
- This seems like a good offer, and he some offers from most of the B1G, which is a good sign. I hope we land him
- Having said that...why the heck aren't 5 star RBs falling over themselves to play here!?!? We run the ball, with great effect, more than anyone this side of Army and are regularly on national TV in prime spots, competing for the big titles. You will get the ball, and make money, and win, if you come here.
I know NIL etc but, man.
November 8th, 2022 at 1:34 PM ^
Wrong thread, homie.
November 8th, 2022 at 1:37 PM ^
Wrong thread (which, I've always wondered, how do so many people post replies in the wrong thread? I've replied to the wrong response before, but never in the wrong topic, and I don't even know how that would happen...)
But since this is here, this is the maddening thing about our recruiting. There's a definite feeling that our pass averse style hampers our recruiting of WRs, but you'd think 5* OL, RB and TEs would be lining up to come here given Harbaugh's tendencies, and yet that hasn't been the case. It's like the worst of both worlds...