A poorly officiated game, yes, but not the only reason the Seahawks lost. Dropped passes, poor time management, missed field goals, & yes, penalties (not all of them were some evil NFL conspiracy) were other reasons Seattle lost.
There are only two officials that, IMHO, calls a fair game. Ed Hochuli and Johnny Grier. I didn't see Greir at all this past seasin but I did see Hochuli. I have no problem with them. Most of the head refs are high school pricipals, CEO's, or other white collar types. Hochuli is a blue collar longshoreman. I do miss Ben Drieth. He made an offsides call sound like a national emergency. He was fun to watch.
Imagine the gaudy passing stats that Hasselbeck would have had had his receivers not dropped so many passes?
An ugly game by any standard. I said in another thread that "Seattle played well except when it counted and Pittsburgh played poorly except when it counted." In a few years no one will remember that, just that the Steelers became a 5-time champ. Some games are remembered forever; some are swept under the rug of oblivion. Let's just say that I highly doubt that SB XL will be the subject of "NFL's Greatest Games" on ESPN.