Cardinals, they enter Super Bowl XLIII with the worst regular season point differential in Super Bowl history, they scored 427 points and allowed 426. The 1979 Rams were the previous worst at a plus 14. Both the Cardinals and the 1979 Rams had 9-7 records , also the worst record of a Super Bowl team. Those Rams coincidentally lost Super Bowl XIV to the Steelers….Kurt Warner joined 2 exclusive clubs by winning the NFC championship. He becomes just the second quarterback to take 2 teams to a Super Bowl. With the Rams he won Super XXXIV but lost Super Bowl XXXVI. Craig Morton quarterbacked the Cowboys in their Super Bowl V loss to the Colts and he also lost Super Bowl XII as a Bronco. They were beaten by the Cowboys…By beating the Eagles Warner became just the fifth quarterback to win a league/conference championship with 2 teams. He joins Morton, Earl Morrall (see note below), Norm Van Brocklin (1951 Rams and the 1960 Eagles) and Tobin Rote (Lions in 1957 and the AFL’s San Diego Chargers in 1963...

One of keys to the Cardinals making it to the Super Bowl has been the running of Edgerrin James who gained 73 yards against the Eagles and 203 for the playoffs. The Cardinals averaged more than 110 yards on the ground in the playoffs after posting just 73 yards on average by ground in the regular season. When they meet the Steelers though they will face a rushing defense that allowed just 44 yards a game in their 2 playoff games…Wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald tied a championship game record by catching three touchdown passes against the Eagles. The record was previously shared by Gary Collins of the Browns who had three scoring receptions against the Baltimore Colts in the 1964 title game and former Baltimore Colt Preston Pearson who caught three scoring passes from Roger Staubach in the 1975 NFC championship game….Ravens, The performances of John Harbaugh and Joe Flacco have elevated expectations of owners and general managers for rookie coaches and quarterbacks. After an extensive search I have found just one rookie head coach and quarterback duo that had more success in their first season together in NFL history. Turning the clock back to 1945, first year head coach Adam Walsh and rookie quarterback Bob Waterfield won the 1945 NFL championship for the Cleveland Rams…..Ray Lewis led all defenders with 29 tackles during the playoffs, Bart Scott tied for second with 26, Terrell Suggs tied for the most sacks with 4 along with the Steelers’ LaMarr Woodley…Scott appears to be one of the free agents the Ravens are willing to let go. Their ability to develop young line backing talent will play a key role in the decision-making process… Ravens will hire from within to replace Rex Ryan. Greg Mattison, Chuck Pagano, Clarence Brooks and Vic Fangio are the likely candidates with a slight edge to Mattison who has coached in the past with Harbaugh’s dad Jack at Western Michigan...

Browns, new head coach Eric Mangini has indicated that the Ravens’ George Kokonis will be the Browns new general manager…..Broncos, New Head Coach Josh McDaniels and former Patriot offensive coordinator is an alumni of John Carroll University. McDaniels becomes the second John Carroll alumnus to be a NFL head coach. The first was Don Shula who won more games (347) than any other coach in NFL history....Lions, new head coach and Baltimore area native Jim Schwartz hired veteran defensive coach Gunther Cunningham to be the Lions defensive coordinator. The Lions had the worst defense in 2008, allowing 32 points a game and they were the only team to give up more than 400 yards a game…Packers, hired the respected Dom Capers as defensive coordinator….Colts, early draft talk has the Colts selecting Maryland’s Darrius Heyward-Bey in the first round to join their wide receivers…Jets, Ravens’ defensive coordinator Rex Ryan became the Jets 17th head coach in franchise history. Only Bill Parcells who went 30-20 and Al Groh who was 9-7 in 2000 have winning career records as a Jets head coach. Hall of Famer Weeb Ewbank was a couple games below .500…Ryan’s father Buddy was Ewbank’s defensive line coach and defensive coordinator from 1967-1975. His defense beat the Colts in Super Bowl III. Rex Ryan has to not only contend with the Brett Favre should-I-stay-or-should-I-go drama, he must also find a bigger wide receiver to compliment Laveranues Cole and Jericho Cotchery. His defense which has been playing the 3-4 alignment and is anchored by tackle Kris Jenkins appears to have the pieces in place to be a dominant defense…

Eagles, gained 454 total yards in their loss to the Cardinals, an NFL post season record in a losing effort...Steelers, Mike Tomlin is the youngest coach to take a team to the Super Bowl. The re-broadcast of the AFC championship game showed Steelers fans near the tunnel area applauding and encouraging Willis McGahee as he was being carted off the field, contrary to some reports…Rams, hired Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spanuolo to be their new head coach. They will use the second over all pick in the draft to replace veteran left tackle Orlando Pace. As of now that pick should be Eugene Monroe from Virginia…Buccaneers, defensive backs coach Raheem Morris was promoted to defensive coordinator to replace veteran coach Monte Kiffin who left for the college ranks, then he was promoted again to head coach after the surprising firing of Jon Gruden. Gruden who led the Buccaneers to a victory in Super Bowl XXXVII had a  60-57 record with the Buccaneers yet they faded at the end of the ’08 season and missed the playoffs. QB Jeff Garcia said in an interview that Gruden had strained relationships with many players this year. Morris’ pass defense ranked in the top 5, five of his six seasons as secondary coach. Fourteen year veteran linebacker Derrick Brooks has never missed a game in his career, but he will miss this year’s Pro Bowl. He does not want to aggravate his rib and leg injuries tipping his hand that he will return in 2009.