The day was filled with high-fives, chants of “RUUUUD!,” and walk-on seniors delivering adrenaline-rushed plays.

For one afternoon, on Senior Day, everything came together for a beleaguered Nebraska defense.

The pass rush. The tackling. The energy.

Oh, the energy.

“I saw it the very first play of the game,” Nebraska defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove said.

When it was over, Cosgrove left the Memorial Stadium field smiling.

“We’ve been through a lot of adversity,” Cosgrove said following Nebraska’s mind-boggling 73-31 victory against Kansas State on Saturday. It snapped a five-game losing streak in which the defense had allowed 45.2 points per game.

“It was nice,” Cosgrove said of Saturday’s bounce back. “I was really excited about how we came out, and you could see from the very first play, the tempo, the enthusiasm was there.

“It takes a lot to come back from a tough, tough game.”

That, of course, being last week’s equally mind-boggling 76-39 loss at Kansas. Those were the most points scored against Nebraska.

Saturday, while Joe Ganz and the offense hung the most points scored by Nebraska against K-State, the defense showed some life.

“It was like the Texas game,” Nebraska senior safety Ben Eisenhart said. “They ran an offense where we knew we could really get after them. We knew we matched up well with them.”

And, like they did against Texas two weeks ago, the Huskers blitzed early and often. The result was a season-high four sacks, seven hurries and numerous knockdowns from a defense that entered the game ranked 115th nationally in sacks.

That K-State quarterback Josh Freeman was on his back throughout much of the game was probably surprising for the Wildcats, too. They were ranked first in the conference and third nationally with only eight sacks allowed all season before Saturday.

“Their O-line was good, but we’ve seen better from opponents this year, and we go against a good O-line every day in practice,” Nebraska defensive end Zach Potter said. “We felt like we could take advantage of some schemes on them, and we executed that really well and got some pressure on them.”

Steve Octavien, Tierre Green and Barry Turner had one sack apiece, and Octavien and Armando Murillo teamed for another. Nebraska finished with nine tackles-for-loss.

A senior walk-on, Thomas Rice, contributed with a tackle after a 1-yard gain in the second quarter — the first career tackle for Rice, who’d never played a down before Saturday.

Freeman threw for 320 yards, going 26-of-44, with two touchdowns and no interceptions. He directed K-State to a touchdown on its second possession and a field goal on its third.

After that, the Blackshirts made life uncomfortable for the former Husker oral commitment, who’s now 0-2 against Nebraska.

“Freeman’s a good quarterback, but we knew we could kind of get after him a little bit,” Eisenhart said. “A lot of confidence out there.”

Cosgrove said coaches changed up their pressures throughout the game.

“There were some four-man pressures, too,” he said. “We changed up some of our pass rushes. We blitzed and changed up … a little zone, a little blitz, a little man.”

Nebraska, while effective on defense, wasn’t door-slamming dominant. K-State managed 428 yards. But that’s still the fewest allowed by the Blackshirts since their previous victory six weeks ago, when Iowa State had 410 total yards.

Kansas State gained 176 rushing yards, although 40 yards in sacks helped skew the Wildcats’ rushing total (108 yards). James Johnson’s 53-yard touchdown run with 2 minutes, 19 seconds remaining was only slightly deflating.

For a battered defense in need of an emotional lift, the celebration had already begun.

“Even at halftime, everybody was so happy, so emotional … last home game, seniors,” Eisenhart said.

“When you lose five straight and you know you’ve got some big-time players, you have to go out there and play. That’s what’s so frustrating, and that’s why it was so great to have people have big plays today.”

Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.