DURHAM – Duke found itself down two touchdowns in the fourth quarter against Pittsburgh on Saturday because of some uncharacteristic mistakes that hadn’t happened in any of Duke’s first 10 games.

And then the Blue Devils only lost because of a failed two-point conversion attempt in the final minute because of something they’ve done all year — which was to keep battling and fighting and clawing.

Along the same lines is the balance for Duke and coach Mike Elko in not overreacting to those costly mistakes — a fumble and a muffed punt led directly to scores, a drop in the end zone prevented one — and making sure they’re not repeated.

“Obviously nobody wants those plays to happen, they’re trying to make them not happen,” Elko said. “Those kids have made so many plays for us this year, we’re certainly going to put them right back in the fire and count on them again and expect them to play like they have for the majority of the year.”

Duke is 7-4 with the losses coming by a combined 16 points. Maybe the perspective of how far Duke has come this season is that the Blue Devils lost their last six games last season by an average of 36.5 points.

Closing the regular season out with a win against Wake Forest — also 7-4 this season — means making sure the mistakes at Pitt were one-hit wonders.

“You address them like they’re a big deal, you fix them like they’re a big deal, but you fix them in weeks prior if ball security wasn’t exactly what you wanted it to be or if decision-making wasn’t what you wanted it to be,” Elko said.

Jalon Calhoun’s muffed punt led to Pitt’s first touchdown — before Israel Abanikanda’s 6-yard score, the Panthers had 55 yards on 15 plays (three possessions).

It was simply a case of Calhoun making a high-risk, low-reward play, trying to field the ball at Duke’s 5-yard line instead of Pitt downing the ball closer to the goal line. When ball took an unexpected bounce, it hit Calhoun’s leg and was recovered by Pitt.

Jordan Waters’ fumble that was returned 30 yards for a touchdown was the first lost fumble by a Duke running back this season. The emphasis on ball security has paid dividends for Elko and his staff, but a string of 282 carries this season without a running back losing a fumble came to a halt with a costly price.

“I didn’t think we played at a level that we were capable of,” Elko said. “I thought we made too many self-inflicted wounds.”

A week after having a career day against Virginia Tech, Jontavis Robertson’s drop in the end zone on a fourth-down heave from Riley Leonard loomed large, given the way the last 10 minutes of the game played out.

“Certainly nobody ever intends for those things to happen,” Elko said. “And it certainly isn’t from a lack of want-to or a lack of care. And those kids were extremely broken up.”

While not in the category of errors, another area of concern was constant throughout Saturday’s loss.

The Blue Devils knew running the ball against Pitt would be a challenge.

Getting only 63 yards on the ground, less than one-third of Duke’s season average (203.8) entering the game, illustrated how difficult it was for Duke to establish the line of scrimmage. Duke’s previous season-low for rushing yards was 139 against Kansas.

Perhaps the most-surprising part of that was that total of 63 included just one sack, for a loss of 12 yards. Pitt entered the game leading the country in sacks (37) and had 14 in its previous two games.

“We weren’t able to get the physical push that we’ve been able to get in most of the games that we’ve played this year,” Elko said. “So we weren’t able to create a lot of space.

“If you’ve got a lot of people in the box and you can’t move them around and create space, that’s a problem.”