The opportunity was right there for Cal. The chance to earn its first ACC win and take down an unbeaten opponent. Then it all fell apart.
The Bears did not play well Saturday on the road at Pittsburgh, but they did enough to have a chance to head back to Berkeley with a victory. Instead, the game will go down as just the latest in a line of close losses for Justin Wilcox's team.
A late 40-yard field goal attempt from McDonald, Pennsylvania native and Cal kicker Ryan Coe was pushed wide right ending the best chance for the Bears (3-3, 0-3 ACC) to eke out their first win since Sept. 14.
The final result was a 17-15 loss at the hands of the Panthers who were held to just 277 total yards by the Cal defense. Pitt (6-0, 2-0) did not score in the second half.
"We don't have the margin to go play bad football from time to time and expect to win against a top-25 team," Wilcox said. "Can't expect that. So, I don't feel sorry for us. I don't feel sorry for our players. I don't feel sorry for anybody. Those are the things we have to fix.
"Do your job. And, it takes physical toughness, emotional toughness. You gotta do it all day long. Then you can win those one-score games."
The Bears were called for 12 penalties resulting in a loss of 110 yards in Saturday's game against the Panthers.
Cal was out of sorts on offense for most of the afternoon at Acrisure Stadium, but the Bears finally put together a cohesive drive in the fourth quarter thanks to impressive play by tight end Jack Endries.
The redshirt sophomore caught passes of 20 and 27 yards from quarterback Fernando Mendoza on the drive before hauling in a 19-yard touchdown pass to pull Cal within two points with 10:30 left to play. Endries had a game-high 8 catches to go with 119 yards receiving in the loss.
The Bears opted to go with a trick play on a 2-point try following Endries touchdown hoping to even up the score at 17, but the plan went awry leaving Cal still chasing points in the final stretch.
Cal ended up needing the 2-point conversion because it attempted a 2-point play after its first touchdown of the game hoping to build some early separation between itself and Pitt.
"If you go up and you get to eight, you get the 2-point conversion, then you put them in a position where they have to go for two or they make a decision do they chase the point all day," Wilcox said about the early move to go for two. "It was kind of a game-plan thing. We thought, based on the matchup, it'd be a tight ball game and can we get an extra point that either they have to chase or force them to go for two throughout the day, and it didn't work.
"Obviously, after it's over, bad call. I would also say, we had a good chance to convert it, we just didn't do it. So, it was unfortunate, and still at the end the end of the game a field goal wins. ... I'm open to all the critiques, I understand it, but there was thought behind it."
Cal struggled to keep Mendoza upright in the game as the Bears' quarterback hit the deck multiple times throughout the game. In all, the Panthers had six sacks and four quarterback hurries as Mendoza spent a big portion of the afternoon under duress.
It prevented the Cal offense from being able to string together drives for most of the day.
"They are a great defense, and they notoriously do have a lot of sacks," Mendoza said about Pitt. "So, I take that upon myself to throw the ball away a little quicker, but I'm also trying to improve on my mistakes and not force the ball downfield. Because, Pitt, they do have a good defense.
"... This is what everybody signed up for playing football. As long as I have a pulse, I'm gonna make sure that I'm being a warrior out there for my teammates."
Mendoza finished the game 27 for 37 with 272 yards passing and the touchdown to Endries. The Bears finished with 335 yards of total offense in the loss.
Cal held Pitt's high-caliber offense to just 277 yards in Saturday's game as the defense shined after allowing a pair of early touchdowns to Panthers running back Desmond Reid.
Pitt did not score in the second half and was held to just 99 yards over the final 30 minutes of the game. Cal limited to the Panthers to just one conversion on 11 third-down chances Saturday.
Still, the big 72-yard rushing score in the second quarter from Reid, which came on a fourth-and-1 play, lingered as a miscue for Cal's defense.
"Kind of made some mistakes, self-inflicted wounds, in the first half that didn't need to happen," Cal inside linebacker Teddye Buchanan said. "Definitely on us, just missing responsibilities. We were able to clean it up in the second half, but that's kind of the difference in a lot of the games. It's the little details, so definitely something we need to clean up and improve as a defense."
Buchanan finished the game with a team-high tying 8 tackles plus a sack and two pass breakups. The Bears forced two more turnovers in the game as Nohl Williams logged his sixth interception of the season on a play in the third quarter and that was followed by fellow defensive back Cam Sidney hauling in the team's 13th interception of the season later in that same quarter.
The Bears were without star running back Jaydn Ott once again Saturday, and Wilcox said the decision was ultimately made close to the end of the week that Ott would be held out.
"We have to have the next man up," Wilcox said.
The Bears return home next week to face NC State on Oct. 19 at 12:30 p.m.
