Complementary football was on full display Saturday night at Spartan Stadium. Behind an offense that gained 468 total yards, a kicker that made a program record six field goals and a defense that limited the nation’s second leading rusher to 98 yards, Michigan State defeated Iowa 32-20.

Iowa running back Kaleb Johnson ran for 98 yards on Saturday, which doesn’t seem awful. However, 75 of those 98 yards were on one explosive touchdown run. Take that single play out and Johnson ran for only 23 yards on 13 carries (1.8 yards per carry).

Outside of the 75-yard touchdown run by Johnson, Michigan State did what it set out to do – stop the run.

“It was Iowa, you knew what they were doing,” linebacker Jordan Turner said after the victory. “And we wanted to win. In order to win, we (had) to defend that, so that’s how we practiced the whole week.”

Stopping the run was a huge emphasis in the lead up to Saturday’s game against the Hawkeyes. The Spartans knew it was the formula to beat Iowa.

“I feel like everybody did their job, gap integrity, everybody did what they were supposed to do and helped the next man make the play,” safety Nikai Martinez said. “Even if you weren’t going to make the play, stay in your gap and let somebody else make the play, and all hats to the ball. We knew we didn’t want to be in one-on-one tackles and we knew we had to play 11-versus-11.”

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Stopping the run all starts with the defensive line penetrating the offensive line and putting pressure on the offense in the backfield. That’s what MSU did. Six of Johnson’s 14 carries resulted in either no gain or a loss of yardage.