Let’s not display your ignorance of the Ideal gas law taught in HS. Do you tires lose pressure when it get cold?
Weird that such measurements have never happened like this in another game. Green Bay nor their opponents in the frozen tundra. Buffalo (if they ever played in January, that is). NY, Philly, Chicago or other cold cities. Only the Patriots. The idea that such suspicion was raised and all the balls were brought back in during the first half to re-measure is unprecedented. Not to mention that zero of 12 balls from the Colts in the same game.
These balls were two full pounds lower than the minimum (at least some of them were). That’s a pretty big drop on a day that wasn’t all that cold. Assuming they pushed the minimum to start with and filled them ONLY to the minimum of 12.5, it’s not likely to drop that much in a matter of an hour or so before the refs re-tested them.