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On the offensive pass interference, the same exact play and call was made in superbowl 38. Carolina had just tied the game with about a minute left, but their kicker kicked the ball OOB. Patriots took over on the 40.
What many people forget is that early in that drive, Troy Brown was called for OPI. Same exact play -- very modest push in the chest that put the defender on his heels for a split second and allowed the catch.
The difference of course was that on the next play or maybe one play later, Brown made an impossible grab for a 15 yard gain, the Patriots made a first down, overcame the 1st and 20, and won the game. So nobody talks about it. Same play, both were the correct call, and the only difference is that Seattle had trouble overcoming their own mistakes in this game.
That said, I thought the holding call was marginal and the illegal block call was positively horrible. Otherwise, I thought the crew did a decent job of letting the players decide the game. Seattle made more mistakes, was bad on special teams, had a coach that looked not ready for prime time, and Pittsburgh made more big plays.
One thing I think is kind of funny about people criticizing the officiating is that every assumes that if the Roth TD was overturned on replay, that one of the best red zone teams in the league wouldn't have found a way to get one inch on 4th and goal to score the touchdown anyway. Yet the very same people all assume that but for the the holding call, Seattle would have scored a touchdown from the 3 yard line.
You see what you want to see, I guess. Seattle made too many mistakes to win a big game against a good opponent, and that's not the officials' fault.
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