Friday night at Northwestern’s lakefront Martin Stadium was a chance for a breath.

Sandwiched between an ugly season-opening loss at Tulane and next weekend’s Big Ten opener against No. 6 Oregon was the arrival of Western Illinois — an FCS opponent that had lost by 49 points to Illinois a week earlier.

Northwestern seized the opportunity, cruising to a 42-7 victory it will use to build self-belief, no matter the quality of the opponent.

“Any time you win a game it’s a confidence builder,” quarterback Preston Stone said. “The biggest task for us is to just gain confidence from the win we had tonight but don’t drink the Kool-Aid. … Just keep our heads down and keep working.”

Here are five takeaways from the game.

1. Coach David Braun didn’t have an immediate update on running back C

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