The Steelers won the game, 21-10. But the statistics suggest that it shouldn't have ended that way. The Seahawks got 20 1st downs, the Steelers only 14. The Seahawks had 396 total yards, the Steelers 339. The Seahawks had the ball for 33 minutes, the Steelers for 27. (Well, 33:02 and 26:58, respectively.)
Seahawk fans have spent the last 15 years saying the officials gave the Steelers the game. They point to these calls:
* With 2:08 left in the 1st quarter, and the game scoreless, Darrell Jackson appeared to have scored a touchdown on a 16-yard pass from Matt Hasselbeck. But he was called for offensive pass interference, by pushing off against Steeler safety Chris Hope. Four plays later, Josh Brown kicked a 47-yard field goal. That made it 3-0 Seattle.
* With 12:29 left in the 2nd quarter, and the score still 3-0 Seattle, Hasselback started from the Steelers' 47-yard line, and passed to Jerramy Stevens. Stevens appeared to have possession of the ball, and then fumble. But the officials ruled that he never had possession, nullifying the gain he might have made.
* With 12:35 left in the 4th quarter, and Pittsburgh leading 14-10, Hasselbeck completed a pass to Stevens, going for 18 yards, to the Steeler 1-yard line. But Seahawk offensive tackle was called for holding on linebacker Clark Haggans. So now it was 1st-and-20, and Hasselbeck was sacked by Casey Hampton on the next play. Then came a 7-yard run by Shaun Alexander.
* And on the play after Alexander's run, with 10:54 left in the game, the ball on the Steeler 27, and the Steelers still up by 4, Hasselbeck again tried to pass to Jackson, but was intercepted by cornerback Ike Taylor. On his return of the interception, Hasselback was penalized for an illegal block.
* The Steelers were flagged for only 3 penalties all game long, totaling just 20 yards. The Seahawks were flagged 7 times, for 70 yards. To put it another way, average yards per penalty: Seahawks 10, Steelers 6.67.
The next day, at a rally for the team at their stadium, Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, who had previously led the Green Bay Packers into Super Bowls XXXI (won) and XXXII (lost), said at the team's rally, "We knew it was going to be tough going against the Pittsburgh Steelers. I didn't know we were going to have to play the guys in the striped shirts as well."
Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star and ESPN wrote, "Bill Leavy and his crew ruined Super Bowl XL. Am I the only one who would like to hear them defend their incompetence?"
Two days after the game, ESPN published a poll: Out of over 100,000 votes cast, 61 percent said that "officiating mistakes affected the outcome of Super Bowl XL."
In 2010, Leavy, the game's referee, admitted his mistakes:
It was a tough thing for me. I kicked two calls in the fourth quarter, and I impacted the game, and, as an official, you never want to do that. It left me with a lot of sleepless nights, and I think about it constantly. I'll go to my grave wishing that I'd been better...
I know that I did my best at that time, but it wasn't good enough...
When we make mistakes, you got to step up and own them. It's something that all officials have to deal with, but unfortunately when you have to deal with it in the Super Bowl it's difficult.
This seemed to confirm what every football fan in the Pacific Northwest wanted to believe: Their beloved 'Hawks got screwed by the officials.
What they wanted to believe was wrong.
Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame the Officials for the Seattle Seahawks Losing Super Bowl XL
5. The Calls Went Both Ways. With 2:13 left in the 3rd quarter, and the Steelers up 14-10, the Seahawks started with the ball on their own 7-yard line. Hasselbeck ran around right end, and gained 8 yards before being tackled by Aaron Smith. The Steelers thought that Hasselbeck had fumbled, and that they had recovered. But the officials ruled that he was already out of bounds before losing the ball.
Had the Steelers gotten the call they wanted, they would have had the ball deep in Seattle territory. Instead, the Seahawks kept going, until the Taylor interception.
4. 5-for-17 on 3rd downs. A bad 3rd down conversion rate would also be a big reason why the Seahawks lost Super Bowl XLIX.
In the 1st quarter, they had a 3rd-and-9, and allowed Hasselbeck to get sacked. Still in the 1st, they had a 3rd-and-14. They were unlikely to convert anyway, but a false start penalty pushed them back further. They had a 3rd-and-6 in Pittsburgh territory, when Hasselbeck connected with Jackson for 18 yards, but it was called back for holding -- correctly. And all that was just in the 1st quarter.
In the 2nd quarter, they had a 3rd-and-2 in Pittsburgh territory, after Alexander had made 2 gains. Instead of giving him the ball again, Hasselbeck threw, and it fell incomplete. Later in the quarter, on 3rd-and-3, Hasselbeck completed a pass, but it went only 2 yards. In the last minute of the half, they had 3rd-and-6 in Pittsburgh territory, and Hasselbeck threw incomplete. The ensuing field goal attempt by Josh Brown was 54 yards, and missed.
Early in the 3rd quarter, with a 3rd-and-5 in Pittsburgh territory, Hasselbeck threw another bad pass, forcing Brown into another long attempt, 50 yards, also missed. With 6:36 to go, possibly enough time to make up the Steelers' 11-point lead, and with a 3rd-and-8 in Pittsburgh territory, Hasselbeck got sacked.
When Hasselbeck most needed to come through for his team, he didn't do a good job of it. As a result...
3. The Game Wasn't That Close. 21-10. Suppose the Darrell Jackson touchdown had been allowed to stand. Would that have changed the course of the game? Maybe. By enough? Maybe not. If that had been the only difference, the Steelers would still have won, 21-13.
2. The Steelers Were Better. Normally, "The opposition was better" would be Reason Number 1. Not this time, although the Steelers were a better team than the Seahawks. They went into the game favored by 4 points, won by 11, and held the Seahawks to 10 points.
That 10-point defensive performance had only been done, or bettered, in 14 of the previous 39 Super Bowls, and in only 3 of the 14 since. The Steel Curtain defense of the 1970s? They allowed the Minnesota Vikings 6 points in Super Bowl IX, the Dallas Cowboys 17 in Super Bowl X, the Cowboys 31 in Super Bowl XIII, and the Los Angeles Rams 19 in Super Bowl XIV.
In other words, what's usually regarded as the greatest defense in football history averaged, over 4 Super Bowls, 16 points per game. The Pittsburgh defense of 2005-06, led by Troy Polamalu, Casey Hampton, James Farrior and Joey Porter, bettered that by nearly a full touchdown.
1. The Officiating Wasn't Bad. Mike Pereira, then the NFL's Director of Officiating, and previously a referee in both the NFL and college ball, reviewed every play, and determined that all 7 of the penalties called against the Seahawks were correct. Referee Bill Leavy was right at the time, and wrong in his later confession.
VERDICT: Not Guilty. The reason the Seattle Seahawks lost Super Bowl XL is that they didn't get the job done, and that the Pittsburgh Steelers didn't let them.