INDIANAPOLIS – Considering all the things Penn State did wrong in the Big Ten championship game Saturday night, it’s almost amazing the Nittany Lions were even in the game against No. 1 Oregon.

They would up losing, 45-37, but the effort and resilience they showed throughout should bolster Penn State’s collective confidence as the first 12-team College Football Playoff now takes center stage.

About 12 hours after leaving Lucas Oil Stadium, the Lions (11-2) were informed they’ll enter the CFP as a No. 6 seed and will host SMU (11-2) in a first-round game at noon on Saturday, Dec. 21.

If they duplicate Saturday night’s performance – minus the mistakes — they’ll be a tough out.

They fell behind by double figures three times in the first half (14-3, 21-10, 28-10) and twice in the second half (38-24, 45-30) and yet they were still banging on the door with two minutes remaining before throwing an ill-advised pass that became a fate-sealing interception.

Certainly they did not deserve to win. Let’s be clear about that. Not when you allow 45 points.

Oregon put the Lions on their heels early. Penn State seemed ill-prepared for the Ducks’ impressive speed and ability to free its playmakers into wide-open space.

“They’ve got really good players that we knew going into the game,” James Franklin said. “They’ve got a challenging scheme.”

Ducks quarterback Dillon Gabriel completed 22-of-32 for 283 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions.

He was cool in the pocket, taking just one sack and deftly buying time while his receivers – particularly Tez Johnson, who caught 11 for 181 yards – torched the Lions’ secondary.

“They did an incredible job of speeding us up our defense,” Lion senior defensive lineman Dvon J-Thomas said.

It didn’t help that Penn State committed four personal penalties in the first half alone, three of which aided Oregon’s first three touchdown drives.

Drew Allar’s first of two interceptions, from deep in the Lions’ territory, was returned to the PSU 1 and set up the Ducks’ 28-10 advantage.

And while there’s no question Penn State “didn’t start out” the way Franklin planned, Allar led three first-half touchdown drives that pulled PSU within 31-24 at half and yet again within a TD after they fell down 38-24.

“We’ve been great in the third quarter,” Franklin said, adding this game switched that trend. “We gave up points on defense (in third quarter), and we didn’t get any points.”

After cutting the lead to 38-30 with 14:17 left, Franklin turned in a head-scratcher, as he often does, by going for a 2-point conversion when it wasn’t necessary, and it was made worse when Tyler Warren was stopped.

His explanation: “We spend a ton of time on the analytics. We were having a tough time stopping them. We knew we were going to have to score points, and we wanted to try to win the game in regulation.”

Alrighty then.

After Oregon went up 45-30, the Lions did revert back to kicking the extra point to keep them in position to tie the game with a touchdown and a (then needed) two-pointer.

Their defense forced a pair of second-half punts, including one with 3:41 to play. With two timeouts remaining, the Lions still had life – until they sucked that out of themselves.

The Nits’ ground game had gouged Oregon as badly as the Ducks’ passing game had picked them apart.

Nick Singleton’s 9-yard run gave Penn State a second-and-1 at its 46 with two minutes remaining.

Instead of continuing to pound the ball and drain the clock, the Lions inexplicably had Allar loft a ball down the right sideline for Trey Wallace, who wasn’t open, and Nikko Reed intercepted the Lions’ last gasp.

It was highly questionable strategy considering the Lions had rushed for 292 yards on the night.

And while the ending joined the beginning as being less than satisfactory, Penn State took some deserved solace in the fact that it stood toe-to-toe with the nation’s No. 1 team.

“We played the No. 1 team in the country and had a chance to win the game at the end,” Franklin said. “One of the things I talked to the guys in the locker room about is this is a new college football. And there’s a 12-team playoff, and our season has just begun.

“We’ll be prepared and ready because we have two losses this year, (to) two top five teams. Again, give Oregon credit, but more importantly, I’m proud of our guys.”

Linebacker Kobe King said Franklin emphasized afterward that the better the opponent reduces the margin for error to “very small.”

And there were too many errors on both sides of the ball and suspect decisions to beat No. 1.

Neil Rudel can be reached at nrudel@altoonamirror.com.