Duke played for the win instead of overtime and was burned on a chilly day, losing 28-26 to Pittsburgh on Saturday at Acrisure Stadium.

That the Blue Devils were even in a position to do so is yet another example of Duke’s resiliency.

“Like we’ve kinda said all year, we’re never out of the fight,” defensive tackle DeWayne Carter said. “I just think we showed a lot of resiliency and that’s who we’ve been all year.”

Duke’s (7-4, 4-3 ACC) three-game winning streak was snapped, along with the chances of a 10-win season, only when Jordan Moore was sacked on a variation of the Philly Special.

The touchdown pass with 47 seconds left from Riley Leonard to Jaylen Coleman was a 19-yarder that came on fourth-and-18.

“It was a good call,” Moore said of the 2-point play. “I definitely wasn’t anticipating having a guy in my face, but I think looking back at the film, there was probably something I could’ve done to at least give it a chance.”

Duke trailed by eight in the final minute because of a failed 2-point attempt with 9½ minutes left. That decision boils down to whether coach Mike Elko wanted to win in regulation or play for overtime — Elko opting for the former.

“In our mind, we were going to play that fourth quarter playing to win,” Elko said. “We’ve talked about that from an analytic approach, then you’re going to go for two (when down) 14 when you get that touchdown there.

“With the wind conditions and the way we were struggling to run the ball, we didn’t think overtime was going to be the best way to win that football game.”

Wind conditions favored Duke in the fourth quarter, which helped the Blue Devils muster a couple of long drives.

But going against the wind in the third quarter was part of why Duke came up empty twice after forcing turnovers.

Datrone Young and Shaka Heyward had interceptions in the third quarter, but Duke went three-and-out after the first one and turned the ball over on downs after the second.

The fourth-down incompletion is the one that will haunt the Blue Devils — in particular Jontavis Robertson.

On fourth-and-9 from Pitt’s 32, Leonard fielded a low snap and scrambled to his left, barely firing off a downfield pass before being crunched by pass-rushers. Robertson was behind safety Erick Hallett II, but the ball bounced off Robertson’s hands and/or chest and fell incomplete.

“The first and third quarter, without us being able to get anything going in the run game, it just became such a struggle,” Elko said. “There was too much on Riley having to throw the ball in the wind as much as he had to.”

Duke had 63 rushing yards, less than half of its previous season low (139 at Kansas). Pitt (7-4, 4-3) entered the game with the ACC’s second-best rushing defense and has now allowed 41.5 rushing yards per game in its last four games.

Jordan Waters fumbled early in the fourth quarter and Pitt’s Brandon Hill scooped the ball and returned it 30 yards for a touchdown, putting the Panthers ahead 28-14 after a 2-point conversion.

That’s when Duke’s rally started.

Leonard launched a 49-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Moore to get the Blue Devils back within a touchdown. Moore said offensive coordinator Kevin Johns had been planning that all week.

“Coach Johns had been game-planning that play for the whole week and we ran it in practice a lot,” Moore said. “We felt very confident with the play.”

Duke’s final touchdown came after its defense got its fifth stop of the second half, and after a snap went through the hands of punter Caleb Junko — with Rocky Shelton II making a tackle on him at Pitt’s 22.

After Leonard’s pass to Coleman for the touchdown and the second failed 2-point attempt, Pitt recovered an onside kick to seal the result.

Duke took two narrow leads in the first half, one at 7-3 and another at 14-13.

The Blue Devils’ second touchdown came on an 11-play, 75-yard drive that was extended by a roughing-the-punter call. The other key play of the drive was a fourth-and-1 conversion from Pitt’s 8, in which Waters busted through the middle for 7 yards.

Leonard scored a play later on a QB sneak.

Pitt led at halftime, though, thanks to its only sustained drive of the first half. The Panthers went 73 yards in 10 plays — they didn’t have a drive of more than 40 yards in the rest of the first half — and Kedon Slovis’ 15-yard touchdown pass to Jared Wayne gave Pitt a 20-14 lead with 10 seconds left before halftime.

Duke trailed 10-7 at the end of the first quarter and both touchdowns to that point involved Jalon Calhoun.

After Chandler Rivers partially blocked a punt and Duke started at Pitt’s 42-yard line, Leonard hit Calhoun in stride in the end zone for a 28-yard touchdown pass.

The Blue Devils got a defensive stop around midfield, but on the ensuing punt, the ball hit Calhoun and Pitt recovered at Duke’s 6. Israel Abanikanda scored on a touchdown run — his ACC-leading 18th of the season — on the next play.