EVANSTON-Moving on from a season-opening defeat is difficult for any team. In Northwestern’s case, it would seem to be exponentially tougher.

After all, the Wildcats lost, 22-21, as a home favorite against a Western Michigan team that, regardless of how talented it is, still hails from the Mid-America Conference. To call the loss disappointing is an understatement, especially for a team coming off of a 10-win season.

But one of Northwestern's mantras is "flush it." Regardless of what happened the week before, the players and coaches get 24 hours to stew about it and then move on. That comes in handy in situations like this one.

At no time was that more evident than at Monday’s weekly press conference, where head coach Pat Fitzgerald and several Wildcats players didn’t look back at Saturday with anger, frustration or regret. They were looking forward to correcting errors and improving as a team before Saturday's matchup with Illinois State.

Safety Kyle Queiro, in fact, had already found a silver lining through Google.

"I was looking up teams that lost their first game and won the national championship. That was actually an AFLAC Trivia Question. It was on TV and I looked into it," said Queiro. "The 1983 Miami Hurricanes. They didn’t lose the way we did. They got scraped, actually, by Florida (28-3), and ended up winning the national championship.

"Also, that same year, Jim Valvano and the NC State basketball team, another Cinderella story, won the national championship. That just fueled me. It’s a long season and there’s still work to do. I’m still excited about those things."

Fitzgerald didn’t have to go back 33 years to find inspiration for his troops. The head coach can just point to the Stanford team his Wildcats knocked off in the season opener one year ago to the day of Monday's press conference. The Cardinal rebounded from that loss last Sept. 5 to win the PAC-12 title and the Rose Bowl, and earn a No. 3 national ranking.

"I would say we beat them a lot more than Western Michigan beat us," said Fitzgerald. "I reminded the guys about what they decided to do collectively as a program: learn from it and get better. You can talk about the end of the year, and they were one of the best teams in the country. So one game doesn’t make a season unless you repeat the negativity. Then it becomes your identity."

Fitzgerald is relentlessly positive, but he’s not blind, either. He saw a lot of problems on Saturday, mostly on the defense.

He said he counted "18 to 20" times where what was called on the sideline wasn’t executed on the field -- including press coverage on the third-and-6 play with 2:45 left in the game that could have given the Wildcats one more possession and one more shot at the win. He saw voided pass rushing lanes that allowed WMU quarterback Zach Terrell to scramble for big plays. He saw multiple instances of players losing leverage and allowing the ball to get outside. He saw many players, like star middle linebacker Anthony Walker, miss plays because they were trying to do too much. He saw turnovers that his team failed to create.

To Fitzgerald, however, these are all issues that can be easily fixed through coaching. He was already happy to where his team's collective psyche was at on Monday morning.

"I thought their attitude was great this morning. That’s how we’ve flipped it in the past. You come back and you go to work," he said. "All the things that we didn’t do well Saturday we can fix fundamentally. There weren’t very many issues that I had from a standpoint of scheme."

If there is a flaw in Fitzgerald’s logic it’s that his Wildcats have tended to get beat the same way the last couple years. Last season, they were dominated on the line of scrimmage in all three of their losses, to Michigan, Iowa and Tennessee. On Saturday, Western Michigan controlled the line of scrimmage and the clock, holding an almost 2-to-1 advantage in time of possession (39:04 to 20:56).

"Our last four losses are the same thing,” admitted Fitzgerald in the closest thing to a negative comment that he made. “The inability to get off the field, sustain drives and losing the turnover battle. We’ve got to learn from those things and move on."

Queiro has already bought in.

"There’s a lot of room (for improvement)," he said. "We have a lot of room to grow and with that, it feels good and exciting and anxious that we want to get back on the field and correct our mistakes and maximize the potential we have on this football team.'

He added, "I’ll take the wake-up call now, rather than later."

Northwestern may have gotten away with a clunker of a game on Saturday if it were playing a lesser opponent. The Broncos may not come from a Power Five conference, but they are the MAC favorites this year and probably have as much or more talent, at least offensively, as several Big Ten teams.

But Fitzgerald doesn’t regret playing a difficult opponent right out of the gate. He thinks testing a team early will pay dividends down the line, even if it puts a mark in the L column.

"Maybe people think I’m whack, but I believe we’re going to win a national championship here," said Fitzgerald. "We have to win a Big Ten West first, I got all that. But I believe that if you don’t put yourself in good position by playing good opponents, you’re just not going to get better."

Fast start: No Northwestern player had a better game than running back Justin Jackson, who, like he did most of last season, carried the load for the Wildcats' offense.

Jackson finished with 23 carries for 124 yards and three touchdowns, including a 46-yarder. Last year, the junior star scored just five TDs in 312 carries. On Saturday, he got 60 percent of that total with just 7 percent of the carries.

Not surprisingly, Jackson claimed the Offensive Player of the Week Award.

"Justin Jackson, he was outstanding," said Fitzgerald. "We had plays that were blocked for minus-4, he got 3. We had plays that were blocked for 4, he got 12."

Auspicious debut: It’s pretty rare for an offensive lineman to be named the Offensive Big Playmaker of the Week. It’s rarer still to garner the award in the lineman’s first career start.

But Tommy Doles managed to accomplish the rare feat on Saturday for his play at the right guard position.

Fitzgerald acknowledged that Doles didn’t make any big plays, per se, but he credited the sophomore for making the block that sprung Justin Jackson’s 46-yard touchdown run, as well as playing well all afternoon.

"In my role, 10 years, in a game, from an offensive lineman’s standpoint, that may have been the best rookie start I’ve seen from a guy, upfront for us, in a long time," said Fitzgerald.

Doles credited tackle Eric Olson and injured guard Ian Park for much of his success.

"I was able to go out there and cut it loose, play with aggression and run your feet,” said Doles, who added that the program’s Trust Yourself motto "was never more real for me than (last) week."

We’re No. 1: Maybe the brightest spot for Northwestern on Saturday was on special teams. The Wildcats find themselves ranked first in the country in net punting after one week.

Hunter Niswander’s three punts on Saturday traveled 153 yards, an average of 51.0 yards per boot. Better yet, two were dropped inside the 20, one was fair caught and none were returned. Northwestern’s 51.0 net punting average is three yards better than No. 2 Ohio State, which punted just once.

Also, Solomon Vault had a 37-yard kickoff return and Jack Mitchell saw two of his four kickoffs go for touchbacks, as he averaged 62.0 yards per kick. The only blemish on the afternoon was Mitchell’s first-quarter kickoff that sailed out of bounds, drawing a penalty.

Notable absences: Northwestern's defense, the hallmark of its 10-3 campaign last season, turned in a very disappointing performance. The numbers certainly told the story, but so did the program's weekly awards. No one claimed the Defensive Player of the Week or Defensive Big Playmaker awards for the opener. The press release simply read "N/A" in both categories, as Fitzgerald couldn't find anyone worthy of the honor.

Injury report: Fitzgerald said that backup running back Warren Long broke his hand on Saturday and will be out at least four weeks. Defensive tackle Jordan Thompson did not play against Western Michigan due to a lower body injury. He is day-to-day, but Fitzgerald expects him to play on Saturday.