Cal remains 0-for-the-Atlantic Coast Conference after another nail-biting defeat rooted in mistakes and what-ifs.

The Bears lost 17-15 to No. 22 Pitt at Acrisure Stadium on Saturday afternoon in another outing they certainly could have won.

Cal (3-3, 0-3 ACC) has dropped three straight conference games by a total of eight points in its debut season in the ACC. Losing close games is the Bears’ way, it seems. They are 6-17 in one-score outcomes dating to the 2020 season.

The Bears defense pitched a second-half shutout against a Pitt team (6-0, 2-0) that was averaging 45 points and is undefeated through six games for the first time since 1982.

Ultimately, Cal could not overcome its self-inflicted wounds, starting with 12 penalties for 110 yards. There was a bit of everything — two pass interference penalties on the same drive, unsportsmanlike conduct, a personal-foul face mask, a personal-foul hands to the face, an illegal substitution along with the usual holding and false-start infractions.

“How do you win a one-score game today?” Cal coach Justin Wilcox asked. “Cut the penalties in half, start there. Or just take care of the ones that take no talent.”

The defense held quarterback Eli Holstein — who had three touchdown passes in each of Pitt’s first five games — to 133 yards and no touchdowns, intercepting him twice.

But the defense also gave up a 72-yard TD run by Des Reid on a fourth-and-1 play on the first play of the second quarter, allowing Pitt to ratchet its lead to 14-6.

“Fourth-and-1 — everybody’s doing their job and one guy makes kind of a selfish decision and gets out of his gap and it goes 72 yards for a touchdown,” Wilcox lamented.

Cal’s Fernando Mendoza completed 27 of 37 passes for 272 yards, including eight for 119 yards and a 19-yard TD to tight end Jack Endries that got the Bears within two points with 10:30 to play.

But Mendoza also was sacked six times, five of them in the second half — the third time in the past four games he’s been taken down at least six times.

“There’s one or two I remember that were for sure on me,” said Mendoza, declining to throw his offensive line under the bus. “I’m a little banged up. I feel fine, to answer your question. That’s what everybody signed up for playing football.

“As long as I have a pulse, I’m going to make sure I’m being a warrior out there for my teammates.”

Despite all of it, the Bears were positioned to win after driving late in the game from their own 20-yard line to the Pittsburgh 22. But placekicker Ryan Coe, who grew up 19 miles from Pittsburgh, missed a 40-yard field goal with 1:50 left. Coe previously missed two from inside 40 in the Bears’ 14-9 loss at Florida State.

Cal scored first, putting together a 10-play, 75-yard drive that was capped by Jaivian Thomas’ 5-yard touchdown run with 8:56 remaining in the first quarter.

Surprisingly, the Bears went for a two-point conversion, with punter/holder Lachlan Wilson overthrowing long snapper David Bird in the end zone.

Wilcox said going for two was part of the game plan in what they anticipated would be a close contest.

“Thought we had a pretty good opportunity for a chaos play; we didn’t convert it,” he said. “Obviously, after it’s over, bad call. We had a good chance to convert it, we didn’t do it.”

Failing to convert the first two-point try forced the Bears to attempt another one to tie the score in the fourth quarter. Mendoza lateraled the ball to fellow quarterback Chandler Rogers, but he was immediately swarmed by the Pitt defense.

The Bears played without preseason All-America candidate Jaydn Ott, who continues to struggle with a season-long ankle injury. The junior running back aggravated the injury last week while rushing for just 2 yards in the Bears’ 39-38 loss to Miami but was listed by Wilcox as probable early in the week.

His availability seemed less and less likely as the week went on, explained Wilcox of the decision made by Cal’s medical staff and Ott.