IOWA CITY – It was a perfect night for football in Iowa City with the perfect atmosphere, but it just didn’t have the perfect ending for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

After a full week of hype, highlighted by a visit from ESPN’s popular traveling pre-game show “College Gameday,” a university sponsored “Be Bold, Wear Gold” promotion and a 7 p.m. kickoff, the game left Hawkeye fans a bit deflated.

In just the second true night game in the history of Kinnick Stadium, the Hawkeyes (4-1) took the field in front of an electric capacity crowd of 70,585, but failed to deliver a victory, falling 38-17 to No. 1 Ohio State (5-0).

“I just want to thank our fans,” U of I coach Kirk Ferentz said. “That was a tremendous environment tonight, I just wish we could’ve given them a little more to go on.”

The Buckeyes showed why they are the top-ranked team in the country in the second half. Ohio State came out of the locker room with a 21-10 lead and then dominated the third quarter, in which Iowa only had 5 minutes, 32 seconds of possession time and would be behind 31-14 before getting the ball with 14:51 left to play. Ohio State had the ball for more than 24 minutes in the second half.

“Ohio State is a tremendous football team,” Ferentz said. “They have a great offense. It’s choose your poison. You can try and come after them and hope [Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith] throws the ball before he gets his feet set, or you can play the zone. The only thing you can do is try to mix it. Those guys give you great problems.”

It was U of I quarterback Drew Tate who took the blame for the loss after the game, citing his inconsistent play in the first half as the biggest problem.

Tate was just 8-22 passing for 133 yards and a pick in the first half and was only 19-41 for 249 yards and three interceptions in the game.

“I think that the way I played the first half really hurt us,” Tate said. “If I would’ve played the way I was capable in the first half, all that stuff that happened in the second half wouldn’t have happened because it would have been a totally different ball game.”

Tate made a crucial error when he telegraphed a second-quarter pass that was intercepted by Ohio State’s Brandon Mitchell, who returned it to the Iowa 30-yard line, setting up an Ohio State touchdown to put the Buckeyes ahead 14-3.

Ferentz said Tate is “his own worst critic,” but also said there were other things that contributed to the loss.