The "M00N" and 2015 Northwestern
One of the memorable games of 2014 was the "M00N" - not in a good way. Michigan won by an astonishing score of 10-9.
Fast forward to 2015 and the cats are coming to town. They are on a 5 game winning streak and has beaten up a good Stanford team in their dreams, and shut out Jerry Kill's team last week.
It is thus interesting to look back of the M00N, and check out the Northwestern-Minnesota game yesterday.
Their pass D:
2014 M00N: Gardener had a QBR of 6!
2015 Minnesota: Gophers QBs have an average QBR of 7.1!
Their run D:
2014 M00N: Deveon and company ran over 150 yards (Devin's negative run excluded)
2015 Minnesota: Gophers ran a total of 74 yards
Their pass O:
2014 M00N: Siemian had over 270 yards with 2 interceptions to go with that
2015 Minnesota: Thorson had 128 yards but much more efficient and no interception
Their run O:
2014 M00N: 37 yards (negative runs excluded)
2015 Minnesota: 184 yards!
So Northwestern has indeed improved (if the M00N Michigan team and 2015 Minnesota can be used as reference) but they are not world beaters. 2015 Michigan D will probably limit their run to under 100 yards, and also limit their pass to somewhere around 100 yards as well. On the other hand, we cannot do worse than the M00N Michigan team in pass O, and will probably on par or better in the run O.
Limit the interceptions (Yes, Mr. Rudock!) and fumbles, and I see Michigan beats Jumping Pat 31 - 17.
October 4th, 2015 at 7:58 AM ^
October 4th, 2015 at 8:02 AM ^
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October 4th, 2015 at 8:05 AM ^
On a sorta different, but not really, note, what if we did this for all our games? Ohio state would be #M00O and Sparta would #M00S
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October 4th, 2015 at 8:37 AM ^
October 4th, 2015 at 9:13 AM ^
October 4th, 2015 at 9:55 AM ^
October 4th, 2015 at 10:26 AM ^
When will then be now?
October 4th, 2015 at 10:20 AM ^
#N00M
October 4th, 2015 at 11:53 AM ^
October 4th, 2015 at 8:01 AM ^
October 4th, 2015 at 8:05 AM ^
I think Northwestern's best win so far this year was the shutout of Minnesota yesterday. For Michigan, the best comparison is between the 2014 team and this year's team.
October 4th, 2015 at 8:21 AM ^
Northwestern's best win of the year is inarguably the win over Stanford. Minnesota is not anywhere near as good as people thought they might be.
October 4th, 2015 at 8:31 AM ^
If you squint, hanging with TCU gives the Gophers a few grains of credibility.
October 4th, 2015 at 9:37 AM ^
Whatever grains they had at the time, they forfeited them when they came within three plays of being 0-5 by just barely edging past Colorado State, Kent State, and Ohio. One play would have lost any of those three games. Think about that.
Meanwhile, Stanford is beating USC and wiping the floor with Arizona. I'll admit, I picked Northwestern in week one largely based on the fact I thought Stanford was overrated and it was an early start in Evanston. But I feel like I gotta take it back on Stanford. They're still a really good team - at least when Hogan is playing well.
You can't compare Minnesota squeaking past MAC teams to Stanford dominating PAC 12 teams.
October 4th, 2015 at 1:45 PM ^
In that same line of thinking, we got a ton of credit for beating a BYU team that was two hail marys away from being 0-3 at the time.
October 4th, 2015 at 8:36 AM ^
That would be absurd. They both have a an "i" as their second letter too
October 4th, 2015 at 8:05 AM ^
October 4th, 2015 at 8:05 AM ^
I am also confused, as this is interesting, but I miss your premise. Is your point that 2015 Minnesota is similar on offense to 2014 Michigan?
October 4th, 2015 at 10:26 AM ^
statistics from a loss to show a team has improved? I suppose the numbers are interesting, but aren't the results more than enough to show Northwestern has improved? They're more convincing that a tenuous comparison of Minnesota to us last season.
October 4th, 2015 at 8:06 AM ^
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October 4th, 2015 at 8:10 AM ^
I hope It will be because the defenses are actually good this year instead of each offense being so incompetent
October 4th, 2015 at 8:13 AM ^
M00N was just foreshadowing of the stout defenses each team would have in 2015. Right now, Northwestern and Michigan are the 1 & 2 scoring defenses in the country at 7 and 7.6 p/g.
Since B1G football can shrink to frigid November 6 to 3 punt fests, one or both may end the regular season giving up fewer than 5 points a game.
/s
October 4th, 2015 at 8:14 AM ^
October 4th, 2015 at 8:19 AM ^
October 4th, 2015 at 10:49 AM ^
October 4th, 2015 at 8:31 AM ^
October 4th, 2015 at 8:35 AM ^
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October 4th, 2015 at 8:40 AM ^
Here's how TeamRankings compares them. I wouldn't be shocked at all if this was a low-scoring affair and I wouldn't even feel bad about it, unlike last year.
Offense | NW | MICH |
Yards/Play | 4.6 | 5.4 |
Points/Play | 0.27 | 0.383 |
Rush Play % | 67.92% | 57.02% |
Pass Play % | 32.08% | 42.98% |
Completion % | 54.08% | 58.55% |
3D Conv % | 46.91% | 42.11% |
RZ Scoring % | 71.43% | 92.86% |
Defense | NW | MICH |
Opp Yards/Play | 4.0 | 3.0 |
Opp Points/Play | 0.128 | 0.123 |
Opp Completion % | 51.77% | 48.25% |
Opp 3D Conv % | 23.44% | 19.44% |
Opp RZ Scoring % | 60.00% | 83.33% |
October 4th, 2015 at 8:44 AM ^
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October 4th, 2015 at 8:51 AM ^
October 4th, 2015 at 9:01 AM ^
October 4th, 2015 at 9:31 AM ^
October 4th, 2015 at 9:37 AM ^
October 4th, 2015 at 9:42 AM ^
I'm confused. Does M00N mean Minnesota-Northwestern, Michigan-Northwestern, or both?
October 4th, 2015 at 9:45 AM ^
2015 Michigan in particular is a better team than the 2014 Michigan team even though the players are not that much different. Some of the players are a year older, and the coaches are MUCH MUCH better for those out there who are finding it curious why this team is so improved.
2015 NW beat Stanford, spanked Minn that is close to the Minn that manhandled Hokefest at concussiongate.
The Michigan performance v BYU will be required to win this NW game is my guess, Could not care less what the score is, or how shitty that M00N game was (and it was chilling it was so shitty), we need a win badly to reestablish our Big Ten dominance.
CRUSH Michael Wilbon, Brent Musberger, and all things Northwestern!!!
October 4th, 2015 at 10:18 AM ^
Their defense is still decent, though, and basically held Northwestern's offense to 2 TDs (excluding the 4 yard drive after the punt return and the scoop and score off the Leidner fumble).
If Minnesota held NU to 2 meaningful offensive TDs, I'm pretty confident that our defense can hold them to the same or better.
Our offense just needs to put up 17 and we'll win.
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October 4th, 2015 at 9:46 AM ^
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October 4th, 2015 at 9:58 AM ^
There is only one moon orbiting Earth and, mercifully, there is only one M00N game.
Hoke is gone.
If the 2015 UM - NW game is low scoring, it will be a defensive battle, rather than a race to determine which offensive is more inept.
October 4th, 2015 at 10:21 AM ^
Are we really supposed to know what "M00N" means? Can you tell me so I can be cool too?
October 4th, 2015 at 11:07 AM ^
October 4th, 2015 at 10:44 AM ^
I attended the MOON game (as well as the firedrill FG game the year before). For the sake of all things Michigan I plan on watching this one from my couch. You are all most welcome
October 4th, 2015 at 10:47 AM ^
October 4th, 2015 at 10:58 AM ^
Based on the date's you two joined I can't tell if you're serious about not knowing what M00N is or not. With that I'll fill you in, last year the game between Michigan and Northwester was so bad the score was 0-0 and when the score graphic appeared on TV it showed M00N. Therefore Brian has since referred to this game as the M00N game, or any other game that resembles how bad that game was as a reference to the M00N game. That being said, this week has no chance of being a M00N game, but could very well be a N00M game.
October 4th, 2015 at 10:58 AM ^
Based on the date's you two joined I can't tell if you're serious about not knowing what M00N is or not. With that I'll fill you in, last year the game between Michigan and Northwester was so bad the score was 0-0 and when the score graphic appeared on TV it showed M00N. Therefore Brian has since referred to this game as the M00N game, or any other game that resembles how bad that game was as a reference to the M00N game. That being said, this week has no chance of being a M00N game, but could very well be a N00M game.
October 4th, 2015 at 11:00 AM ^
October 4th, 2015 at 11:11 AM ^
See, it's confusing because M00N only lasted for a half. UM scored in the 3rd quarter. Which, while boring, is not that unusual in football.
October 5th, 2015 at 8:57 AM ^
October 5th, 2015 at 8:57 AM ^