Following a long return trip home from Stanford, Pat Narduzzi didn’t wake up Sunday morning feeling like Pitt had put its best effort together against the Cardinal.

While the Panthers cruised to a comfortable enough 35-20 victory and recorded three interceptions, Pitt still lost the turnover battle, as quarterback Mason Heintschel threw two picks and lost a pair of fumbles.

Ultimately, Narduzzi can live with the mistakes of a true freshman quarterback who has totally rejuvenated the Panthers, leading them to five straight wins. But Pitt’s 35 points still came as unsatisfying.

“We should have put up 50-plus points again,” Narduzzi said Monday.

Both of Heintschel’s interceptions coming in the red zone — the first at the Stanford goal line — probably gave Narduzzi flashbacks to earlier this season, when Eli Holstein was making the same mistakes almost weekly.

But equally as frustrating to Narduzzi was that Pitt’s interceptions also came immediately after the defense forced a turnover on downs.

In the third quarter, with Pitt ahead 35-13, Stanford tried a fourth-and-9 attempt from its own 43-yard line that ended as an incomplete pass.

Six plays later, Heintschel had Pitt knocking on the door of 42 points, only to throw a pick while looking for Deuce Spann in single coverage.

Then, in the fourth quarter, Stanford failed on fourth-and-4 from its 46-yard line.

Heintschel proceeded to drive Pitt to the 18 but was picked in the end zone again, trying to find Poppi Williams.

For Narduzzi, those constituted missed opportunities that cannot repeat themselves in the weeks to come, as Pitt stares down three end-of-season matchups against ranked opponents, beginning with No. 10 Notre Dame on Nov. 15.

“When a team wants to go for it on fourth down inside their own territory, we stop them defensively and give our offense a short field for the offense, you’ve got to make them pay so that the next time they come out on fourth down, they think twice about it and punt the ball away,” Narduzzi said.

“We can’t let teams think they can go for it and it’s not going to hurt them. … We’ve got to learn how to put our foot on the throat.”

Overall, Narduzzi has reason to be happy about Pitt’s fourth-down performance on both sides of the ball.

Defensively, ACC opponents have converted just once (Syracuse on Oct. 18) in 10 tries. On offense, the Panthers have gone for 20 fourth downs, converting 14 times (70%), good for third in the conference.

“It’s a good stat to have,” Narduzzi said. “People are looking at it going, ‘Maybe we shouldn’t go for it on fourth down.’ On the flip side, we’ve been successful on fourth down offensively. Whether it’s a fourth-and-1 or a fourth-and-2 we go for and convert … People are going for it on fourth down more than ever. You’ve got to be great on fourth down.”

As Narduzzi puts a bow on the Stanford game and guides his team through its final bye week, his head might be beginning to spin at all the active possibilities within the ACC looking ahead to Dec. 6, when the league title game is played in Charlotte, N.C.

Pitt (7-2, 5-1) is in the hunt to appear in the game for the third time under Narduzzi but doesn’t control its own destiny.

Even if the Panthers win out vs. Notre Dame, Georgia Tech and Miami (the Irish won’t count in the ACC win-loss column), they’ll need some chips to fall their way to compete for a title.

Especially pertinent to Pitt’s hopes are the remaining head-to-head matchups featuring some of the ACC’s top teams: Duke vs. Virginia on Nov. 15, the Panthers’ own road trip to Georgia Tech on Nov. 22 and a consequential SMU-Louisville game, also Nov. 22.

Pitt’s Sept. 27 loss to Louisville means the Cardinals would edge the Panthers in the ACC’s top tiebreaker in head-to-head competition. Thus, SMU winning its matchup against the Cardinals is important.

But if both the Panthers and Mustangs win out and finish league play at 7-1, it’d be SMU in the title game by virtue of record against common conference opponents, the ACC’s next tiebreaker after head-to-head results.

All of that, plus plenty of other scenarios, still have to play themselves out over the next few weeks.

In the event the ACC standings do stay so top-heavy and some of the league’s tertiary tiebreakers have to be utilized to determine who plays in the championship, Narduzzi won’t look forward to those as deciding factors.

“Tiebreakers, who wants them? Who wants to go to the championship game or not go because of one? … Hopefully it’s head-to-head,” Narduzzi said. “If it comes down to head-to-head, you don’t mind that tiebreaker. But when it comes down to, you didn’t play a certain team, that’s not good.”

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