Thanks to a rally by Kennett and late defensive stands by both the Tribe and Ste. Genevieve, I was a perfect 5-for-5 on my predictions last week.

So without further ado, here's Buhler's picks for week 2.

Hayti at Malden: The Indians outscored East Prairie 21-0 in the fourth quarter to roll to a 42-12 win last week and are loaded with athletes. Malden's defense looked strong in a loss to Scott City last week, but its offense didn't.
Hayti has too much speed to stop, while Malden will struggle against the Indians' D.
Buhler's pick: Hayti.

Dexter at Festus: The Bearcats almost pulled the comeback of the year last week, almost overcoming a 28-point fourth-quarter deficit in a 40-35 loss to state-ranked Ste. Genevieve. That said, the road doesn't get any easier with Festus, which is ranked No. 9 in Class 4.
Dexter looks better than expected for this season -- possibly good enough to contend for the Class 3, District 1 title -- but probably not as good as Festus...
Buhler's pick: Festus.

Cape Central at NMCC: The Eagles looked good-but-not-great in a 20-6 victory over Festus-St. Pius last week, while Cape Central looked completely awful in a 56-7 thrashing at Parkway North.
Both teams will do better this week, but the winner will be...
Buhler's pick: NMCC.

Charleston at Sikeston: Sikeston is coming off its first opening-night win in five years, while Charleston is coming off its first opening-night loss since then. But when both teams meet in one of high school football's oldest rivalries, period, throw out the records.
This should be a good one, but I like...
Buhler's pick: Sikeston.

Kennett at Caruthersville: The Tribe hasn't beaten Caruthersville since 2002, which is coincidentally the last time Kendrickus Reed wasn't on the team. But Reed is gone and the Tigers got 196 combined rushing yards from Jake VanAusdall and Rashad Fields.
On the other hand, Sikeston shredded the Tigers' defense for 352 rushing yards and Kennett has one of the fastest backfields in the area.
Look for the losing streak to come to an end...
Buhler's pick: Kennett.

And for a bonus this week, my opening-week NFL picks of our three "local" teams.

Panthers at Rams: St. Louis seems to have back the intangibles it had when the Rams went to two Super Bowls and won one. There are questions about the defense, but there were questions about the quarterback spot when Kurt Warner took over in 1999.
Buhler's pick: Rams.

Chiefs at Texans: Kansas City enters the season with Larry Johnson at running back and a lot of questions. The good news they can answer those questions against Houston, which has never had a winning season. Still, the Texans seem better than in past years, so I like...
Buhler's pick: Texans.

Titans at Jaguars: Last season, Jacksonville ran roughshod over a weak Tennessee run defense. The Jags return running backs Fred Tayor and Maurice Jones-Drew, but the Titans' revamped D looked good in the preseason. We'll see if it carries over to the regular season Sunday...
Buhler's pick: Titans.