With the NFL season a mere 5 1/2 (or is it 4 1/2?) hours away, I damn near forgot to get my picks in for the inaugural week of “Tony kicks Pete’s ass in NFL picks: Part Two”. (That’s just a working title, but I’ll run with it.)

Anyway, here goes, in usual bullet point fashion:

NEW ENGLAND over Oakland – You don’t think the NFL would let their meal ticket lose at home on opening night, do you?

KANSAS CITY over NY Jets – When in doubt, take the decent home team over the potentially less-than-decent road team.

JACKSONVILLE over Seattle – See above.

CLEVELAND over Cincinnati – Cincinnati will win this game by 17 points. But I can’t pick against the Browns right out of the gate.

CAROLINA over San Antonio…err, New Orleans – Sure, the Saints may be pumped to get on the field but on the road against a good team that’s not missing half their city gets my vote.

HOUSTON over Buffalo – My first road team winning, and it could be a shaky proposition.

WASHINGTON over Chicago – Bears are bad. Very bad.

PITTSBURGH over Tennessee – I really want to miss this pick.

MINNESOTA over Tampa Bay

DENVER over Miami – Fish are worse than the Bears.

ST. LOUIS over San Francisco – I don’t think the Niners will be as bad as they were last year or the year before, but it’ll be close.

SAN DIEGO over Dallas – No Antonio Gates makes this one close, but the Chargers should get it done on the road.

NY GIANTS over Arizona

GREEN BAY over Detroit

BALTIMORE over Indianapolis – Sure it was just preseason and the backups played most of the minutes, but on the road against the Ravens isn’t the place to try to start clicking.

PHILADELPHIA at Atlanta – T.O. and Donovan McNabb are planning something “special” for the cameras. I hope the FCC is watching.