IOWA CITY – ISU coach Dan McCarney knew Drew Tate would play, he just didn’t know how well the Hawkeye quarterback would perform.

Tate, Iowa’s senior signal caller, sat out the Hawkeye’s game last week at Syracuse with an abdominal strain, but was back with a vengeance in No. 16 Iowa’s 27-17 win over Iowa State.

Tate completed 26 of 38 passes for 274 yards and three scores, picking apart an ISU defense that gave up 410 yards of offense.

“His play doesn’t surprise me one bit,” McCarney said. “What a tremendous young man, what a tremendous leader, what a competitor, what a player he is. He elevates the play of everyone around him.”

Tate’s injury, which forced backup Jason Manson to start against Syracuse and had Tate’s status in question until late in the week, was nowhere to be seen.

Tate showed his health early in the game when he scrambled, faked right and went left

“I didn’t see an injury out there today, he looked 100 percent,” said ISU linebacker Adam Carper. “He looked elusive out there.”

Tate threw three touchdown passes to three different receivers, hitting Andy Brodell, Tony Moeaki and Tom Busch for scores.

It was the first career touchdown reception for all three players.

“The receivers played well,” Tate said. “I had all day to throw too, so I think the guys up front played extremely well.

“We were moving the ball. There was never a time when we really couldn’t move the ball. I overshot [Scott] Chandler twice on what would have been touchdowns, so we knew we could move the ball if we stopped making mistakes like overthrows or penalties.”

Tate was especially effective in the third quarter, completing 9 of 11 passes for 99 yards. His 19-yard pass to Moeaki capped a nine-play, 80-yard drive that tied the game at 17.

Freshman Dominique Douglas was Tate’s favorite target, catching six passes for 88 yards. In all, Tate completed passes to nine different receivers.

“[U of I coach] Kirk [Ferentz] has done a great job of recruiting, and they have a real quality program,” McCarney said. “Whoever they put on the field are going to be good Division I athletes.”

All of Tate’s passing was a direct result of Iowa State’s gameplan.

“We figured they were going to load the box and force us to throw and make the receivers beat [them], which they did,” Tate said.

Iowa State held Albert Young – the Big 10’s leading rusher last season – to just 57 yards on 18 carries.

“Iowa State does a good job of making it hard on you to run the football,” Ferentz said.

“We were just going with what we thought we had the best chance with, and it worked out okay.”

The Cyclones have struggled defending the pass all season. After three games, teams are averaging 286 yards through the air and 29 completions per contest. The ISU defense has also given up seven passing touchdowns this season.

“We made tremendous strides, but we took a couple steps back today,” ISU cornerback DeAndre Jackson said. “We have to be able to finish the game.”