GLENDALE, Ariz. -- For weeks, since his team received the No. 3 seed in the College Football Playoff, Boise State coach Spencer Danielson has heard the gripes about the selection process and that the Broncos didn't earn their spot in the quarterfinals.

In the wake of a 31-14 loss to sixth-seeded Penn State in the VRBO Fiesta Bowl, Danielson said the Broncos showed they belonged.

"A lot of people counted us out and we were a couple plays away from winning," Danielson said. "That's football, though. We could lose to anybody in the country. But I also believe we could beat anybody in the country."

After Boise State fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter, it seemed as if the game had a chance to turn into a rout, but the Broncos cut the deficit to 17-14 early in the third quarter despite limited production from star running back Ashton Jeanty.

"Hopefully everybody just watches the film," Danielson said. "That's been my big message all year: watch the film. Watch the game tonight. They had 387 yards; we had 412. Yes, we didn't execute. We lost the game. That is what it is but watch our team."

Danielson lauded his team's effort to roll off 11 straight wins to close the regular season, culminated by the program's first back-to-back Mountain West Conference championships.

"There's been a lot of teams that have said that they should be in it. I'm curious how they played their bowl games," Danielson said. "To me it's all about putting the ball down, play the game, whatever they set to make the playoff, that's on us as coaches and competitors to go get it done."

Alabama, Miami and South Carolina -- three of the teams that just missed the playoff cut -- all lost their bowl games.

"With the expansion of the College Football Playoff, all you want is to give teams a chance," Danielson said. "Everybody knew how to make the playoffs to start the season. There was no gray area.

"We've been in playoff mentality since September. We knew after we lost on the last-second field goal in Oregon, we can't lose again and we didn't."

With Jeanty bottled up for most of the night -- he was held to a season-low 104 yards -- most of Boise State's production came through the air. Quarterback Maddux Madsen completed 23 of 35 passes for 304 yards, but threw three interceptions. Jeanty also had two fumbles, one of which was lost. Those four turnovers, combined with 13 penalties for 90 yards and a pair of missed field goal attempts, proved to be too costly to overcome.