PASADENA, Calif. -- After Stanford dispatched Iowa 45-16 in the Hawkeyes' first Rose Bowl appearance in a quarter-century, the temptation exists to write this season off as an illusion.

That would suggest, basically, that Iowa got lucky. That it played a soft schedule, reinforced this week by the poor bowl performances of Michigan State and Northwestern. That it never belonged near the College Football Playoff. That Iowa provides the best argument against expansion of the four-team field -- because, you know, Iowa would have made an eight-team playoff, and after this Rose Bowl Game Presented by Northwestern Mutual, nobody needs to see that.

Anyone tempted to dismiss Iowa?

"Shame on them," senior center Austin Blythe said.

Blythe started the last of his 49 games for the Hawkeyes on Friday, and in that span, he experienced only one loss by a margin greater than that of the Rose Bowl. In the locker room aftermath, he listened intently to the message of coach Kirk Ferentz.

And Blythe bought every word of his coach's message to the team.

"We played way too well to let this game define who we are as a football team," Blythe said. "We know what we did this year was something that no Iowa team has ever done, and nobody can take that away."

Blythe is right. This ugly loss does not define 2015 Iowa.

It does, however, factor heavily into the definition of the Hawkeyes as a program that struggles to compete on the big stage.

Iowa has now lost four straight bowl games. On Friday, it trailed Stanford 35-0 at halftime. Last year, it trailed Tennessee 35-7 at halftime of the TaxSlayer Bowl. Before the past two seasons, the Hawkeyes fell to LSU and Oklahoma and were outscored 98-7 in the first halves of those games.

This is Iowa: outmanned considerably outside the comfort zone of the Big Ten, against whom the Hawkeyes' deliberate and consistent style works well. That style worked especially well in 2015, when paired with the efficiency of this team.

As the first 12-win team in school history, the legacy of 2015 Iowa is secure. This group is the product of the masterful touch of Ferentz and his staff to empower a group of players to gain confidence and outperform expectations over 12 months.

"I think this is a special team, regardless of today," Iowa quarterback C.J. Beathard said. "Stanford played very well, and we didn't. We weren't ready to play, I guess. It's going to sting and hurt for a little bit, but this doesn't take away from the good season we had."

In the painful finale of the 2015 season, the fifth-ranked Hawkeyes allowed a punt return for a touchdown, an interception return for a touchdown and Christian McCaffrey to set a Rose Bowl record with 368 all-purpose yards.

McCaffrey, a talent unlike any Iowa has seen this season, scored 11 seconds into the game. Stanford's 21 points in the first quarter set a Rose Bowl record. Then the Cardinal scored less than a minute into the second quarter.

Beathard was sacked seven times.

It was no surprise that the Stanford band piled on, clowning Iowa fans at halftime with a skit that included references to a dating website and people dressed as cows -- whatever that means. The band made a mockery of Iowa, much like the Cardinal football team did.

"Stanford just outplayed us at every turn," Ferentz said.

Iowa moves forward with a better understanding of itself after this 12-win season. A year ago, the Hawkeyes were lost as a program after a 7-6 finish capped by three consecutive losses. Then they identified various areas that required immediate improvement. Notably, they had to run the football well, stop the run and play better on special teams.

For 13 games, it happened. But not Friday, not against McCaffrey and the Stanford defense.

"We don't have anybody like that, and I mean that with all due respect to our players," Ferentz said of the Heisman Trophy runner-up. "We have a lot of good players, but he's a tremendous football player -- great balance, great vision, very difficult to tackle."

After a while, the Hawkeyes missed McCaffrey when he was standing still.

"It's almost like he can see the holes before they open up," Iowa linebacker Cole Fisher said.

McCaffrey is a great player. He might be transcendent before he's done at Stanford.

In 2015, Iowa had a great team. But can it get to the next level as a program? Is there a next level for the Hawkeyes?

Sixty minutes of football Friday at the Rose Bowl offered a clue.