Dr. Fox's Week 4 Picks

Sorry, I missed out on last week due to a forgetful mind. And yes, I'm making these picks 20 minutes before kickoff, so little talk. See a previous post for how I choose the games to pick:

Detroit Lions +9.5 over Chicago Bears - The Bears are winning this game outright, but I see the Lions being frisky enough to keep within 9. It may be a garbage TD when it doesn't matter in the 4th, but every point counts in a point spread pickem.

Washington Redskins -8 over Tampa Bay Bucs - Ugh. What a shitty game. Washington has something to prove to themselves after their loss to Detroit last week.

Baltimore Ravens +2 over New England Pats - Baltimore wins this one straight up.

San Francisco 49ers -9.5 over St Louis Rams - See comment 2 spots above.

Minnesota Vikings -4 over Green Bay Packers - The Pack just don't look all that good this year, and if Cedric Benson could run all over them, imagine what A.P. is going to do.

Last week: Forgot!

Year to date: 5-5 50%

Dr. Fox's Week 2 Picks

Before I begin, I noticed I haven't yet set up my power rankings. Well, after the end of the Bengals game last week, I was somewhat dejected and declined to watch most of the 3 PM games, hence I haven't really scouted out the league yet. After this week, that should hopefully change.

I'm running late and there's tacos to be made, so onto the picks...

(As always, I randomly select 4 games courtesy of a random number generator and also pick the MNF game)

Buffalo Bills (-4.5) over Tampa Bay Bucs: I'm a little worried that a loss like Buffalo had last week would crush the team for the season, but Buffalo has a history of being a very good early season team and then collapsing badly later in the year. Tampa doesn't excite me, I'm going Bills.

Kansas City Chiefs (-3) over Oakland Raiders: Funny I get this game as I was talking about it earlier this week. I think the Chiefs are going to roll the Raiders in this matchup of two terrible teams. Seriously, who did San Diego sleep with to get such terrible teams in their division?

Pittsburgh Steelers (-3) over Chicago Bears: Sorry Bears fans, but I think your run over the last few years as a contender is just about over. The defense looks old and brittle, and losing the heart of your team, even if he is diminished from his former self, really hurts with Urlacher going down. On a side note, I'm really just not sold on the Steelers this year either. They are going to be good and probably win their division, but something doesn't seem right with them.

New Orleans Saints (-2.5) over Philly Eagles: New QB, won't end up well.

Indy Colts (-3) over Miami Dolphins: The Dolphins were a very good and very lucky team last year. Not happening this year. The Colts are coming to the end, but they just aren't there yet.

Wow Dr. Fox, way to go out on a limb and take the favorites in every matchup. I just don't see any upsets here (although that Tampa game is really intriguing, I think it will define the Bills season here) and the lines on all these games are really close. We will see if I bounce back from last week's showing.

Last week 2-3

Year to date 2-3 40%

Dr. Fox's Week 1 Football Picks

Its been a few years, but I'm back... Dr. Fox is here to show you the football light once again. This year I'm going to look at 4 randomly selected games and also the monday night football game. The lines are from sportsbook.com as of whenever I write this each week. Enough with the intro, on to the picks:

Cincinnati Bengals (-5) over Denver Broncos: (Personal note: Honest to goodness, this is the first game that the random number generator selected!) Denver is in shambles going into the season, and I don't see them getting on track at all this year, let alone the first game. Cincinnati should have enough to tease fans into thinking they can go somewhere this year, at least until their QB gets hurt. I'm betting that doesn't happen today.

Seattle Seahawks (-7.5) over St. Louis Rams: I do not like this spread as high as it is, which gives me significant worry. However, Seattle is looking to bounce back from a tough year last year at home against one of the worst teams from last year. A lot of people are picking the Rams to be a sleeper team this year, and I for one don't understand why. I'll stick with the aeral assult the Seahawks should be able to bring.

Chicago Bears (+4) over Green Bay Packers: There's something about the Bears over the past few years that they have been able to handle the Packers, even up in Green Bay. The weather is warm, and the Bears are healthy. I see big things from the Bears for the first half of the season before they eventually start to regress a bit.

Baltimore Ravens (-12.5!) over Kansas City Chiefs: The Chiefs are terrible. Really terrible. I could see them being the worst team in the league by the end of the season. Therefore, it is going to take a lot to get me to pick them for anything this year.

New England Patriots (-11) over Buffalo Bills: The Pats are back this year and ready to give the finger to the league. Expect this game to be a high scoring blowout.

There you go, Dr. Fox's week 1 picks. I'm not real happy with the randomly selected games this week, as the last 3 are lopsided contests with spreads over a touchdown each. It is never fun to pick these games, and usually it is smarter to just take the points. Well, I guess we will see if going against the norm will help out this week. Enjoy the first week, and look for my first Power Rankings around Wednesday/Thursday.

Lollapalooza 2009 awards

Right out of the chute...here's the 2009 Lollapalooza Awards. A word of advice...if you are fan of softer stuff or artsy fartsy bands, this probably isn't the award ceremony for you. Although you are now probably asking yourself, why did you go to Lollapalooza then? Without further adu:

Best Band (Headliner Edition) - Tool!!! Nothing says prog rock like Tool. First time I got to see them, and they put on an awesome show. I got to hear my favorite Tool song, Aenema, and a host of other goodies. The only complaints I had were that they went light on the Undertow album, only playing one deep cut off of it and none of the radio staples. The other complaint I had was with all the wussy people at the concert that said things like, "Eww, Tool. All their meathead fans are going to ruin Lolla just like Rage Against the Machine did last year". You know what Sally? Go suck an egg, you are completely wrong. Rage (which was awesome last year btw) turns everyone into Raging (pardon the pun) psychos so full of energy and blind, well rage, that all you want to do is maim, punch, and destroy. Tool is more of a thinking man's band, as in, "I want to plan a coup against a third world dictator, or at a minimum, at least create a small blackout in downtown during rush hour". Completely different things. Duh.

Worst Band (Headliner Edition) - Kings of Leon Now KoL, as the kids call it, wasn't particularly bad, they just weren't particularly interesting either. Every song they played sounded like it went through about 10 levels of scrubbing to bring you the most inoffensive, generic rock you could find. Not only that, but this newfound wussiness permeated back to their old bluegrass rock songs. Somehow they managed to completely neuter Molly's Chambers to make it sound just like everything else off their new album. As the lead singer stated towards the end of the show, "A lot of people have lost faith in Kings of Leon over the last few years". Count me as one of them. I can't blame them, though, for selling out to make a lot of money. I like money too.

Most Upset I Missed This Band - Dan Deacon Okay, new rule. Anytime there is a goofy looking white guy playing a mashup of electronic/hip hop/rock music, watch him. No matter what you do, watch him. Trust me on this one.

Best Lessons Learned - Lou Reed Things I learned from Lou Reed during his set. 1. If you take home an ugly girl, don't tell her she's ugly in the morning. You're just going to get a cup of coffee in your face for that one. 2. If you are two hours late for a date, just don't show up. It's better that way. 3. Don't piss of Lou Reed. He's Lou Fucking Reed.

Most Disappointing - Silversun Pickups I had only heard their radio songs before the concert, and I liked them both. So I thought, "I'll go check out this band, I haven't seen a real rock band with a chick singer in a while". Turns out the lead singer is actually a guy. Whoops. I haven't been fooled this bad since hearing Kennedy on the radio from Kill Hannah. All in all, just an uninteresting set, with every song sounding the same.

Best Band (Other Edition) - Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears Now here's some good old blues music, with a lot of profanity and drunken ramblings mixed in. Good times.

Don't Blow Your Load too Soon...Oh Rats - Rise Against A nice enough set, but half an hour and over a dozen songs into it already, I wondered how in the world this band would make it through an hour. Well, when they ended their set 10 minutes later (and 20 minutes early), I found out. As Swany said, "I didn't know we were watching an Offspring cover band". Uh, couldn't you say that about any popular rock/punk band?

I Wish I Knew Any of Your Songs - Coheed & Cambria Easily the loudest set that I heard at Lolla. C&C rocked out the house with a bunch of 10 minute long layered rock epics, almost like they were the offspring of Rush and Black Sabbath. Unfortunately, I didn't know any of their songs, which made it hard to keep focus throughout the set. Maybe next time.

And there you go, my 2009 Lolla awards. Any thoughts? Please either post them below at this blog, or on my new facebook page (if you can find it...ha ha ha ha ha)

Until next time kids.

I'm Back!

That's right, after a 4 year hiatus, I'm back and ready to rant again. Come by here to get my thoughts on life, love, and...pfft yeah right. You'll get whatever the hell I'm thinking about at the time. Let's see where this baby takes me...

Oh, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that your grand genie, Dr. Fox, will be back this fall with his Award Winning Footbal Picks. He paid me to say that.