CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - In some big spots, the University of South Dakota football team played like a legit Football Championship Subdivision operation on Saturday afternoon against one of the country's top teams.

It was in the smaller areas where things got away from the Coyotes.

A 24-13 loss for USD against Northern Iowa, the No. 5 team in the Coyotes' new NCAA football division, demonstrated clearly that this new level has things the last level did not. Just as clearly, evidenced by the 415 total yards put up by USD, the Coyotes are ready to embrace the new challenges.

"We definitely didn't back down," said USD quarterback Noah Shepard, who threw for 290 yards and ran for 90. "So in that way, it was a confidence-builder for us. The mistakes killed us - and we're going to have to get away from that if we want to win games like this - but we all played hard the whole way."

This was the third ranked FCS opponent in three years for the Coyotes, who lost at Central Arkansas in 2006 and McNeese State in 2007.

There was no avoiding some of the similarities in this FCS loss to the Panthers. There were great lumps of time where USD played its opponent even in both of the previous games

USD held a 37:23 to 22:37 advantage in time of possession but made mistakes that kept an upset out of reach. While compiling all those minutes with the football, the Coyotes also compiled five turnovers, missed two field goals and a botched extra point. In addition, procedure penalties were a persistent companion throughout. It added up to, well, it added up to 24-13.

"We're not a team that turns the ball over too much," USD coach Ed Meierkort said. "Against a team like this, it's harder. They get their hands on the ball a lot quicker. I thought as the game went on, though, we kind of caught up to the speed of the game."

The contest itself had a different shape to it than the recent grunt fests USD had wrought in their recent days as a Division II offensive power. The running game was not nearly as productive against a UNI defensive line that made the Coyotes work.

"The big difference was the way their defense played," Meierkort said. "We're used to bouncing and breaking free for some big gains, but these guys make you tee it up for every yard."

UNI was up 14-0 with a 12-yard Corey Lewis run and a 16-yard pass from Pat Grace to Schuylar Oordt early in the second quarter.

With Shepard leading the way, USD answered by going 83 yards in 11 plays, ending it with a quarterback keeper around the left side from 7 yards out to make it 14-7 with 3:21 to play in the half.

A stop on the next possession would have put USD in nice shape going into the second half. Instead, Grace connected with Johnny Gray on a 32-yard TD with 1:21 to play and went into intermission leading 21-7.

Former O'Gorman star Josh Mahoney, now a junior starting linebacker for the Panthers, picked off Shepard on USD's first possession in the second half and - using some running skills he last demonstrated as a Knight - returned the ball 42 yards to the USD 11.

UNI missed a field goal, however. Two possessions later, USD defensive back Mychal Bogan intercepted a Grace pass and returned it to the UNI 29. Shepard eventually punched it in from 2 yards out with 3:12 to play.

Twice in the second half USD got inside the UNI 20-yard-line and did not score, first giving the ball up on downs at the UNI 11 on a fourth-and-1 and again on a Shepard fumble with 4:30 to play at the Panthers' 14.

In between the pressure points, Shepard made life difficult for the UNI defense. He found Dan Skelly open - sometimes way, way open - eight times for 144 yards. He completed at least two passes to six different receivers.

"That quarterback is good," Mahoney said. "He really showed the type of athlete he is against us with the plays he made. The whole team played us pretty tough."

Meierkort told his players that if they were in the game in the fourth quarter, they would play for touchdowns. Twice on fourth downs, USD converted. The third time, trailing by the final score, Shepard got stopped inches short.

"I thought we had to try to make a stand on those plays," Meierkort said. "The other thing was that I wasn't real excited about the speed of our kicking unit today. It was their first time facing real bullets."

USD goes on the road to play Southeastern Louisiana next Saturday. It's another FCS squad, though the program does not carry the same competitive reputation that UNI does.

"We want to eventually become a reputable FCS program just like this one," Meierkort told the Iowa media after the game. "When we can come into places like this and win games, we'll be one. But not until then."