With no local football, no big UFC show, and basketball season rolling along, and spring training not starting up for another few weeks, things have been quiet here at Costa's in the Cage. Here are some quick thoughts on the recent news in sports.
NFL
The Jets are reported to name John Idzik, a Seahawks executive, as their General Manager soon. Seattle has drafted well recently and that's a lot more than I can say about Mike Tannenbaum. Speaking about the Jets, the post-season press conference was pure comedy. From Woody Johnson saying he wants Rex Ryan to help him choose his boss, to Rex saying he wants a fresh start and wants to instill his personality on the team (he couldn't do it after the first four years!!!). I'm still a Rex Ryan fan, but it might have been better if the team just started with a clean slate instead of keeping the head coach and firing the GM and offensive and defensive coordinators.
Now let's talk about the playoffs (ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!! YOU CAN'T TALK ABOUT THE PLAYOFFS!!!)
The Falcons and Matt Ryan got the monkey off their back by winning a playoff game, now they have a chance to make it to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1999. The 49ers were preseason favorites to get to this game again, but nobody would have thought that Colin Kaepernick would be the one leading them there. On paper, the 49ers are the more complete team, with a suffocating defense and a read-option offense led by Kaepernick, while the Falcons are pretty much one dimensional, living and dying with Matty Ice. That being said, the Falcons play really well in the Georgia Dome (they are 33-6 at home in Ryan's career), and despite not blowing teams away, they have found ways to win all season. I'm going with the Falcons to win the game 24-20
On the AFC side, we have a rematch of last year's Championship Game, with the Ravens visiting the Patriots. The Patriots have been playing their best football as of late, winning nine of their last ten regular season game, and blowing away the Texans last weekend. The Ravens are a tough physical team, and usually give the Patriots fits (coming a missed field goal away from forcing overtime last year), and the team wants to send Ray Lewis out with another ring. I hate to say it, but I don't see it happening. Tom Brady is playing his best football plus Stevan Ridley is a legit running threat. I'll take the Pats to win the game 35-24.
MMA
Bellator's debut on Spike TV last night officially made them the second biggest MMA promotion in the world. I never really watched much of their fights on MTV 2 because of a bad timeslot on Friday night, but will try to watch it more often on Thursday. Spike is banking on TNA Impact's audience to stick around after wrestling to watch MMA, the same way they put the first Ultimate Fighter on after WWE Raw back in the day.
Speaking of The Ultimate Fighter, the new season is set to debut this week in it's new timeslot on Tuesday after struggling to pick up steam on Fridays. This season going to be coached by Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen, and is supposedly going through several production changes to take the focus away from shenanigans happening in the house and have more of a UFC Countdown feel to it. I'm looking forward to this year a lot and it could be a make or break season for the fledgling franchise.
This weekend is the first of three straight UFC weekends, culminating with the Super Bowl weekend super-fight between Frankie Edgar and Jose Aldo. This weekend's show is headlined by Michael Bisping and Vitor Belfort. Dana White has said if Bisping wins then he will be next in line to face Anderson Silva. Bisping is hitting his prime as a fighter, winning five of his last six (including a close decision loss to Chael Sonnen). Belfort is a dangerous fighter in his own right, with knockout power, but he doesn't have the stamina he used to. If he can't hit Bisping early, I see this being a long night for the Brazilian.
NBA
Despite not playing their best basketball as of late, the Knicks still hold the 2nd best record in the Eastern Conference and are 2 1/2 games up on the Nets for the Atlantic Division crown as we near the halfway point in the season. MVP candidate Carmelo Anthony is playing the best basketball of his career, and the team is getting back to full strength with Amar'e Stoudemire and Iman Shumpert back and Raymond Felton expected to return at the end of the month. The team has two big statement games with the rival Brooklyn Nets coming to town on Monday and then a rematch with the Celtics on Thursday (with some added juice following 'Melo and KG's incident a couple weeks ago). The biggest problem I see with team so far is that they can get taken out of their game by big physical teams, like the Bulls. Mike Woodson has to try and find a way to keep the team's composure in those games. At this point, anything short of at least making the second round of the playoffs will be a huge disappointment for the blue and orange.
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