Steelers’ Christmas Eve game the 2nd-coldest home game in franchise history

For only the third time over their 90-year history, the Pittsburgh Steelers played a game with the official temperature in the single digits on Saturday.

It was 8 degrees at kickoff for the Christmas Eve night game against the Las Vegas Raiders, making it the second-coldest NFL game ever played in Pittsburgh and third-coldest the Steelers have participated in at any venue.

With an official wind measurement of 16 mph at kickoff, the real-feel wind chill factor was minus-10 degrees.

Saturday also set a record for coldest game played in the 22-season history of Acrisure Stadium (formerly Heinz Field). The only Steelers home game with a colder official gametime temperature than Saturday was a Dec. 17, 1989, win against the New England Patriots at Three Rivers Stadium (5 degrees).

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The lone Steelers game colder than that was a Dec. 10, 1977, loss to the Cincinnati Bengals at old Riverfront Stadium. It was 2 degrees that day.

While the night kickoff would appear to have contributed to the frigid feel, temperatures in Pittsburgh actually rose throughout Saturday. It was 8 degrees, for example, at 1 p.m., the most-often used kickoff time for NFL games.

The temperature combined with the holiday and the matchup of two mediocre 6-8 teams, contributed to a stadium that had less than half of its seats filled with fans for most of the first half Saturday.

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