I don't follow sports at all, and the Super Bowl is the only football game I ever watch so I really don't have a dog in the fight. But I do know you're wrong. Poor officiating can take the wind right out a teams sails. The Seahawks came out of the gate strong and didn't falter until a few "perceived bad calls" were thrown at them.
You can turn that around and say "They shouldn't have been rattled" but there's a big difference between being rattled by the other team, which they weren't, and being rattled by the referees. Seattle was clearly rattled by the refs.
Wrong. Seattle faltered on their first possession, after moving easily to mid field they then got stopped by the D and sacked out of FG range. No penalties were called on that drive at all. And that's pretty much the story of the game for Seattle, good job getting to Steeler territory, bad job getting from the 45 to scoring range and/ or staying in scoring range once they got there.
No...that's a weak excuse. I do follow sports, I have participated in sports - including at the intercollegiate level - and there's never a time (save Pop Warner football-level games) that the refs kill a team's chances.
Damage is always self-inflicted.