Tobeck: Mistakes cost Seahawks in SB XL
Feb 3, 2011, 4:09 PM | Updated: Apr 4, 2011, 7:52 pm
MyNorthwest.com staff
Seeing the Steelers back in the Super Bowl is a sore sight for Seahawks fans still bitter over Seattle’s 21-10 loss to Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XL.
Five years later, that game still bothers former Seahawks center Robbie Tobeck.
“When I look back on my football career I appreciate the good times and the wins and all those things, but a lot of times when I look back … I just look at some of those plays that I wish I had back,” Tobeck said on Brock and Salk on Thursday. “And there were some plays in that Super Bowl that we as a team just wish we had back.”
Super Bowl XL referee Bill Leavy admitted in August that he and his crew “kicked” two unspecified calls in the fourth quarter, possibly referring to a holding penalty on Sean Locklear and a personal foul on Matt Hasselbeck.
The holding call negated a deep pass early in the fourth quarter that would have put the Seahawks on Pittsburgh’s 2-yard line with a chance to take the lead with a touchdown. But Hasselbeck threw an interception two plays later and was flagged for blocking below the waist while diving to make a tackle.
But Tobeck said it isn’t the bad calls that still bother him as much as the team’s inability to overcome them. Jerramy Stevens caught Seattle’s only touchdown but also dropped three passes. Josh Brown missed two long field goal attempts and the Seahawks’ defense allowed a 75-yard TD run by Willie Parker and a 43-yard TD pass from wide receiver Antwaan Randle El.
“Was it one-sided officiating, in my opinion? Yes it was,” Tobeck said. “But you know we had been able to overcome all that stuff all year that year, but for some reason, in that game we weren’t able to overcome it. We had a drop ball here and a missed assignment there – those type of things.
“Really, if you can go back and look at the film, if we execute those things we win that football game.”
