IMHO, this Michael Smith guy is a chump, there were two bad calls. The holding call (not on Locklear, the other guy) and the chop block on Hasselbeck. The biggest thing to remember is these officials are human and working in the biggest game of their careers- just like the players. They are watching it from 10 feet - 20 yards away in real time, not from 15 different angles in super slo-mo.
PI on Jackson: He pushed off. That the write above says it created no separation is BS. And the reaction of the DB is the best indicator, he immediately throws his hands up in disgust (before the ball is caught) b/c of it. It is Irvin-ball. Of course Irvin had no problem with the push-off b/c that was his MO.
Locklear Holding: he got beat and collared the guy... right call.
Hasslebeck fumble/no fumble: I hate this rule. The defender grazed him on Hasselbeck's own fall to the turf. The touch by the defender had no impact as to whether Hasselbeck was going down- and no one touched him after he hit the ground. If he had not lost the ball, he could have gotten up and ran ... so the offensive player has it both ways... don't like the rule but they got it right after replay.
chopblock by Hasselbeck: watching it live it looked like the right call. Of course when you see the replay it really was a feeble attempt to "tackle" or at least get in the way of the INT return man. bad call but those things happen.
Other Seattle OL holding: poor call, guy got beat so badly he couldn't hold him.
Roethlisberger TD run: They called TD and there was nothing in the replay to dispute it. The replay angle was not perfectly above the goal line- it was a little inside of the goal so it makes the play harder to assess. I think he was in by a fraction of an inch... The thing that makes the play suspect is that the linesman didn't signal TD right away...
PIT TO: Called right as the play clock ran out. The big deal is that the Ref who watches the clock can't watch both the clock and the snap at the same time... As Madden says there' usually a half a beat from the time the clock hits zero until the whistle blows...
*****
Who performed worse than the Refs?
Roethlisberger, almost played bad enough to lose this game. His poor start and the INT looked, (some of you will love this) Plummeresque... Didn't manage the game well overall. One more bad pass in this game and the Seahawks could have won.
Seahawks time managment: at the end of both halves it was pathetic. Throwing in the iddle of the field without timeouts and no one made an effort to get to the sidelines even after they caught the ball. They needed to kick the FG as soon as they got in range... oh right... the kicker...
Josh Brown, K: two makeable FGs missed gave Holmgren no confidence in him in the 4th Q
Stevens, TE: uuuugghh! what, like five dropped balls? Horrible... And I think he caught the last ball and didn't get out of bounds...
The Stones: uuuggghhh, again. I was worried that Mick was going to fall down and have to use the lifealert pendant to call for help.... were they playing the same songs? And they have written like a 1000 hit songs and had to pick a new one that no one knows.... Paul McCartney was much better last year...
Commercials: most of them sucked.... especially the creepy Burger King- King... The only good ones were the Ameriquest (don't judge too quickly "defibrillator" and "airline passengers"), the bud light (magic fridge) and the Ultra Amber ("touch football") ones.