Pre-Super Bowl housecleaning

Sweeping up a few items of note in the first week of a 2-week NFL-less lull:

• With the fourth-seeded Ravens making it to New Orleans, it'll make six Super Bowls in the past eight to feature a fourth, fifth or sixth seed. Before this current run, only four fourth-or-lower seeds made it to the Roman Numeral Game in the previous 15 seasons.
• On the subject of seeds, it'll now be only twice in the past 13 seasons that a No. 1 seed has hoisted the Lombardi Trophy with the 2009 Saints and '03 Patriots doing the honors. For comparison, seven No. 1 seeds won it all in the 10 previous seasons before this current 13-year drought.
• With the 13-3 Broncos or Falcons failing to make it to New Orleans, the team(s) with the best regular-season record has now only won the Super Bowl twice (the '03 Pats and '02 Bucs) in the past 16 seasons. In the 27 seasons prior to that -- dating back to the 1970 merger -- the team with the top winning percentage went on to win it all a full 18 times.
• Another odd trend will continue as this year's Super Bowl winner will have posted a better regular-season record the previous year. To wit, the Niners went from 13-3 in 2011 to 12-4 in 2012, while the Ravens also dipped a game from 12-4 to 11-5. This will make five seasons in the past eight that this applies to the NFL champ.
• The 2012 Patriots became the 26th league scoring leader to fail to qualify for the Big Game. That means 21 have made it, with 10 winning it all -- the last being the '09 Saints.
• Conversely, 18 teams who allowed the fewest points in that year's regular season have had Super seasons, with 13 of them winning it all. The 2010 Steelers were the last top scoring defense to qualify, while the '08 Steelers were the last ones to dance under the confetti.
• Adrian Peterson won't be toting the rock in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, meaning only five regular-season rushing leaders have gone on to play in that season's Super Bowl. And that list only includes three names total: The Seahawks' Shaun Alexander ('05), the Broncos' Terrell Davis ('98), and the Cowboys' Emmitt Smith ('95, '93 and '92).
• Meanwhile, the league's leading passers (according to rating) definitely have had more success with 15 top-ranked QBs making it to the Big Game and eight of them winning it all. The last one was the Saints' Drew Brees in 2009.