Steelers-Raiders 2nd-Coldest Game in Pittsburgh History, Sets Acrisure Stadium Record

PITTSBURGH — The kickoff temperature of Saturday night’s meeting between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Las Vegas Raiders was marked down at eight degrees, accompanied by 16-mile-per-hour winds. The game is the coldest game in the history of Acrisure Stadium, the third-coldest game in the history of the Pittsburgh Steelers and second-coldest game played in Pittsburgh.

The game broke the Acrisure Stadium record of 11 degrees, which happened twice, the last of which came on Dec. 31, 2017 against the Cleveland Browns.The cold, combined with a defeat that made them the second team in NFL history to go winless in the regular season, made for a bad day for the Browns.

The coldest game the Steelers have ever played at home came on Dec. 17, 1989, when they welcomed in New England in 5-degree conditions. That matchup featured four rushing scores for Pittsburgh, which went for a total of 219 yards on the ground.

The Steelers played only one game colder than that, a 2-degree game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Riverfront Stadium on Dec. 10, 1977.

The weather this time around certainly contributed to the modest crowd at Acrisure Stadium on Christmas Eve. The paid attendance for the game was 64,761 fans.

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Each breath in the venue was accompanied by a puff of steam, players made frequent trips to the space heaters on both ends of the sidelines, and were greeted with jackets to go over their shoulder pads when they came off the field.

Steelers players remained bundled up during the pregame, as a few of the visitors tried to show their toughness by warming up without shirts on.