Unless Pat Narduzzi can orchestrate another upset of a Top 15 team – something he’s been good at through the years – he will be forced in the next two weeks to swallow a historically bad won/loss record.

While the run defense has fallen off from accustomed standards and players continually gift opponents with penalty yardage, the opponents get tougher. No. 14 Notre Dame on Saturday in South Bend, Ind., and No. 4 Florida State back home Nov. 4 await.

Pitt is an 18 ½-point underdog against the Irish (6-2). Pitt defeating Florida State would shock those who believe the Seminoles (7-0) are destined for the College Football Playoff.

Nothing is impossible in the crazy world of college football, but little has happened in the past eight weeks to indicate Pitt (2-5, 1-3 ACC) is anything but on its way to a 2-7 record.

How strange is that for a program that won the ACC championship only two years ago and had won 20 games in the previous two seasons? Pitt hasn’t been 2-7 since 1998, when coach Walt Harris was trying to resurrect Pitt from the dark years of the 1990s.

“Just not something I’ve been accustomed to,” Narduzzi said of the bizarre fourth quarter Saturday night when a 10-7 lead turned into a 21-17 Wake Forest victory. “Usually at Pitt we finish. I don’t know if it was (lack of) focus, but we just didn’t play like we should play, not like a Pitt football team.”

Narduzzi acknowledged an inability to get sacks from his down linemen, especially when they were futilely chasing Wake Forest quarterback Santino Marucci in the fourth quarter.

“So, you know, we’re not who we were last year or the year before,” Narduzzi said, “and we know we lost some dudes up there. I know coach (Charlie) Partridge is working on it.”

Part of the problem was the front seven was compromised when outside linebacker Solomon DeShields was injured on the opening kickoff and missed the rest of the game. Narduzzi put DeShields at risk on special teams, even though Pitt was short two linebackers because of injuries to Braylan Lovelace and Kyle Louis.

“We should have done a better job of adjusting that, to be honest with you,” Narduzzi said. “We will the next time, I guarantee you that. But you have regrets as coaches. That’s a coaching thing that we should have fixed.”

He added, “Our stunts just don’t look as clean.”

The other frustrating issue for the coach is run defense. Pitt has led the ACC in that department for the previous three seasons, allowing an average of 93.6 yards per game. This year, Pitt is sixth (127.7). Wake Forest scored twice on runs of 18 and 42 yards while rushing for a total of 172. “I guess we’ve been spoiled,” he said.

“We haven’t forgot how to coach defense and how to stop the run, OK. It’s what we do.”

It probably didn’t help that Narduzzi said he was surprised Wake Forest was forced to use Marucci because of injuries to the two quarterbacks atop the depth chart. Yet Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson had indicated last week that he wasn’t “100% sure” if starter Mitch Griffis would be available.

“New quarterback did some things different that we didn’t practice as much for,” Narduzzi said. “We practiced more on other things that they didn’t do when we didn’t know who the quarterback was going to be and didn’t know there was any issue with their starting quarterback. So (we) prepared for him and then had really a totally different guy in there. And again they switched the run game up a little bit.

“But, you know, we’ve got to execute.”

The other problem — one that might have cost Pitt the game — is the preponderance of penalties. Flagged 13 times for 101 yards Saturday, Pitt leads the ACC with 62 and is third in total penalty yards lost (502) and average per game (71.7). The Demon Deacons were penalized four times for 36 yards.

“Well, sometimes you feel hated on,” Narduzzi said. “Sometimes, you feel like it just needed to be called both ways and sometimes you feel like it’s not, as a coach.”

He said safety Donovan McMillon “apologized 10 times” for his two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties that changed field position late in the game. He pulled an opponent off a pile before shoving another one.

“He’s crying after the game. I mean, he didn’t mean to do it,” the coach said. “I don’t know if the second one was real. It looked like someone threw a shoulder into him. You’ve just got to keep your cool and play ball.”

Narduzzi also questioned at least one of the three defensive holding calls against his team.

“You go back and watch (cornerback) A.J. Woods,” he said. “It’s a tiny little tug, and the guy is jamming, and when you lock your arm out, it’s supposed to be called as offensive pass interference. But it doesn’t get called. When someone is pushing me off, I’m grabbing on for dear life, too.

“We have three defensive holdings, which again, to me it’s a go both ways. I don’t know how to officiate it. I don’t know how to coach anymore, I guess.”

Narduzzi said he has seen indications his team’s problems are getting fixed across the board.

“I think we are getting better,” he said. “But, you know, we certainly didn’t show it. Maybe Saturday.”

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