PITTSBURGH – The California football team held No. 22 Pittsburgh's high-powered offense scoreless for nearly three quarters but fell just short in a 17-15 defeat on Saturday afternoon at Acrisure Stadium.

The Panthers converted a field goal to take a 17-6 lead with 10:04 remaining in the second quarter and didn't score again. The Golden Bears (3-3, 0-3 ACC) got a 39-yard field goal by Ryan Coe midway through the second quarter and 19-yard touchdown catch by tight end Jack Endries early in the fourth period to trim the deficit to 17-15 but couldn't take the lead.

Cal hurt itself with 12 penalties for 110 yards and a handful of other untimely mistakes.

"There might be some teams that are good enough to have self-inflicted wounds – I'm not sure you ever go through a game perfectly," Travers Family Head Football Coach Justin Wilcox said. "But we don't have the margin for error to play bad football from time to time and expect to win against a Top 25 team. Nobody feels sorry for us. Those are things we have to fix. If we do that, than we can win these one-score games."

Cal's three losses this season are by a combined eight points.

Pittsburgh entered the game ranked No. 4 nationally in total offense with an average of 522.2 yards per game and No. 6 in scoring offense at 45.6 points per contest. The Bears limited the Panthers to just 277 yards of offense and intercepted Pitt quarterback Eli Holstein twice to give them a nation-leading 13 on the season. Nohl Williams picked off one of the passes for his sixth of the year.

"I appreciate (the defense's) resilience," Wilcox said. "If we were able to take the lead, I felt good about our defense stopping them. Unfortunately, we weren't able to do that."

Cal put together a potential game-winning drive in the fourth quarter, notching three first downs and moving the ball to the Pittsburgh 22. But Coe couldn't convert a 40-yard field goal attempt with 1:50 to play.

The Bears' defense came up with one final stop off Pittsburgh's offense to get the ball back with 47 seconds remaining, but Cal couldn't move the ball from deep in its own territory and the Panthers held on for the victory.

Cal played the game without running back Jaydn Ott, who missed his second game this season due to injury. Jaivian Thomas led the Bears with 72 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries. Endries finished with career-highs of eight catches for 119 yards.

Cal returns to California Memorial Stadium next Saturday to host North Carolina State in its homecoming game. The contest begins at 12:30 p.m. and will air on the ACC Network.

"Nobody wants to make mistakes; mistakes happen," said Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who was 27-for-37 for 272 yards and a touchdown. "We know what we have to do in our locker room. The only thing that matters now is N.C. State."