Are you sure that was the Seahawks?

My sympathies to all the Seahawk fans out there on losing the Super Bowl. It was odd because it looked like the 'Hawks were channeling the Vikings of the last several years (not this last one, because they sucked). First, they got screwed by the refs. I'm sorry, Roethlisberger did not get the football into the endzone on that dive. His head, yes. The football, no (well, after he had been down for 30 seconds). Also, that was the cheapest offensive pass interference call I've seen since Moss was in town. I know the receiver put his hand on the guy and made it look like a push off, but the amount of force was clearly so negligable that the defender didn't even rock backwards on his feet. Since Roethlisberger's run was on 3rd down, we can call this an 11 point swing (+7 to Seattle for the touchdown, and -4 to Pittsburgh for kicking a field goal instead of getting into the endzone). That ties the game and sends it into overtime, where the championship gets to be decided by a coin toss (yippee!). But it would have at least been exciting.

However, you can't blame it all on the refs. Like the Vikes, the Seahawks compounded the officiating mistakes by making two boneheaded decisions. First, Holmgren's decision not to go for the 4th & inches in the second quater. I know he was on his own 25 or whatever, but it's the biggest game of the year and he should have known his defense couldn't hold Pittsburgh back forever (up until that point they had done a fantastic job). Madden & Michales said Holmgren couldn't risk giving the ball up so close to the goal, that it would swing momentum. But then the Steelers took the ball and drove in for their non-touchdown touchdown. I'm sorry, but 4 & inches (especially the short inches that it was) should be a no-brainer in the NFL, wherever you are on the field. The other boneheadedness came out during the 'Hawks 2-minute drill, when they wasted a ridiculous amount of time trying to get one play off. Hasselbeck audibled through I think the entire playbook, and Holmgren appearently kept calling in new plays. It was a moment worthy of Denny Green, who is widely acknowledged as the worst clock manager on the planet.

So it was half the refs fault and half Seattle's fault. I have to put the Steelers as a distant third in terms of factors that decided the game.