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Kickoff special
For some reason I feel the need to deconstruct my picks for the first weekend of the NFL season, even though however I look at it, I still come out with 33 points (three for each winner I picked correctly, which would be eleven of the fourteen games played so far). I tend to focus mostly on the games I missed, but I don’t think I would have picked the Rams to lose on opening day at home to the Panthers, or the Packers to outplay the Eagles.

If I’d gone with my first instinct, though, I would have taken the Titans to beat the Jaguars, because I love Vince Young’s game, and the way he makes things happen when it seems as if nothing is possible. But that would have been offset by the fact that I almost picked the Raiders over the Lions, switching at the last minute because of the Raiders’ unbelievably muddled quarterback situation.

So either way, I still would have come out of Sunday with 33 points, thanks to the efficiency of the Broncos’ field goal unit, getting on the field, snap, spot and kick, all within the last eight seconds of the game, to beat the Bills by a point.

For the Monday night games, I have the Bengals, because (a) I’d like to think they’ve overcome their off-the-field problems, and (2) I really like their offense (although if any defense can stop it, it’s probably the Ravens’, especially this early in the season; and the 49ers, because (a) they’re my hometown team, duh, and (2) even though the Cardinals beat them twice last season, they’re still the Cardinals, and they have a habit of finding a way to lose games they should win.

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