COLLEGE PARK — The trend is nearly as startling as Maryland football’s showing in Friday night’s 37-10 setback to Northwestern at SECU Stadium.

The Terps have been on the wrong end of 10 consecutive games after byes — a dubious streak that began in 2017. That trajectory is especially glaring considering how many teams use bye weeks to recover and regroup to play with a renewed sense of energy and effort for the remainder of the season.

After the latest blunder, a somber Ruben Hyppolite II hinted that a unified approach in the locker room was lacking before Maryland (3-3, 0-3 Big Ten) took on the Wildcats (3-3, 1-2).

“We just need to execute,” the fifth-year senior linebacker said when asked to explain the program’s futility after bye weeks. “We need guys to have the same mentality as far as playing hard and just having pride. We just need to continue to cultivate that and continue to hammer that amongst our team. That’s on me as a leader to do that, and I’ll get it done.”

Here are three more observations from Friday night’s loss.

Mike Locksley’s play calling raises more questions than answers: Through the team’s first five games, the offense averaged 33.4 points and 451.4 yards under the auspices of offensive coordinator Josh Gattis and didn’t score less than 24 points.

On Friday, Locksley acknowledged that he called the plays, and the Terps were held to their lowest scoring output since a 30-0 clobbering by Penn State on Nov. 12, 2022, and absorbed their most lopsided loss to an unranked opponent since a 43-3 spanking by — guess who? — Northwestern on Oct. 24, 2020.

Locksley, who was the offensive coordinator at Alabama in 2017 and 2018 during that school’s highly successful run, said the decision to transfer play calling duties was part of the coaching staff’s usual evaluation of the state of the team.

“One of my strengths is being able to help with the offense,” he said. “It’s a system that I know really well philosophically. I decided to take over the play calling today. Josh assisted me upstairs with the eyes. That’s the learning curve. There’s some different philosophical ways that I call it compared to Josh, and I think you saw a little bit of that today. That’s where I think you’ll see moving forward the collaboration of how philosophically I want to call it. But it’ll benefit us.”

What necessitated the switch from Gattis to Locksley? Why did the offense struggle against a Wildcats defense ranked near the bottom of the Big Ten in points and yards per game with Locksley at the helm? Will Gattis remain after essentially being demoted to a backup role by his boss?

“Josh continues to serve as the OC,” Locksley said. “He’s still a voice. He helps and collaborates and keeps it organized during the week. It didn’t work as well as we would like to see it work today, but it showed glimpses of what it can be.”

Redshirt junior quarterback Billy Edwards Jr., who was intercepted once, fumbled once, and held without a touchdown pass for the first time this season, said hardly anything changed between Locksley and Gattis calling plays.

“We obviously had the two weeks to make that adjustment and get comfortable with it,” he said. “It’ll be something as we get more reps, we’ll get more comfortable. But I wouldn’t say there was too much of a difference at least on my end with handling that and getting the play calling and executing it.”

There’s no quit in the players: Bless their hearts, but both Edwards and Hyppolite vowed to keep fighting and pledged to carry their teammates along.

“We’ve got the right guys in the locker room,” Edwards said. “This is my third season. In college football, every team faces adversity like we have here in the past two years. Love our fans and we have great support, but I think for the guys in our locker room, the message stays the same. Just control what you can control and the only thing we can control is what we do about it.

“The 122 guys in that locker room, we have to all make that decision and then continue to make those steps in the right direction so that we can go out there and put out a product that our fans want to come and watch and continue to embrace us and love on us Saturday.”

Asked if he needed to say something to his teammates, Hyppolite was direct.

“That’s what being a leader is about,” he said. “I’m in this position, and I’ve got to step up and do what I’ve got to do. Do I have to say something? I don’t have to do anything, but I will because I care about my team, about my brothers, and I know we’ve been through everything with the work we put in, and we’re definitely better than the product we put on the field. So as a leader, I’ll get that job done, and they’ll hear from me, and we’ll get on the right track.”

How likely is that though? Maryland has to find three wins in their last six games to get to bowl eligibility, and the remainder of the schedule includes games against previously ranked USC (3-2, 1-2) on Saturday, No. 3 Oregon (5-0, 2-0) on Nov. 9, Rutgers (4-1, 1-1) on Nov. 16, previously ranked Iowa (3-2, 1-1) on Nov. 23, and No. 4 Penn State (5-0, 2-0) on Nov. 30. Even a road game against Minnesota (3-3, 1-2), which upset USC last week, on Oct. 26 looms as a dangerous proposal.

Edwards said the players can’t afford to look down the road.

“The toughest step is the next step, and that’s where we’re at right now,” he said. “So we’ve got to figure out what we can do. I’m going to start with me. I’m the leader of the offense. I’m the guy that has the keys to the car and gets in the car and drives it. So I’ve got to figure out what I can do better and then every guy in that locker room has to make that decision and just continue to get better as a team.”

Locksley has another headache to deal with: returns: Redshirt freshman Ricardo Cooper Jr. was the fourth player to try his hand at kick returns for the Terps this fall. The results left much to be desired.

On his first return in the second quarter, the Baltimore native and Calvert Hall graduate had the ball jarred loose by Northwestern graduate student linebacker Greyson Metz, and redshirt freshman defensive back Damon Walters pounced on the fumble at Maryland’s 23-yard line. Redshirt junior kicker Luke Akers converted a 43-yard field goal for a 17-0 advantage with 10:50 remaining.

On the ensuing kickoff, Cooper let the ball bounce at the 1 before it spun backwards, forcing him to scoop it up at the 6 and move four yards before getting tackled. It was a lackluster outing for Cooper, who had succeeded junior wide receiver Octavian Smith Jr., sophomore wide receiver Braeden Wisloski and redshirt junior running back Roman Hemby for kick returns.

“Ricardo’s been one of those guys that we’ve been developing for about two years, and he’s got the ability to make the plays because he’s got tremendous line of speed,” Locksley said. “Got to protect the football.”

Wisloski had his own spot of trouble when he allowed a punt to land behind him, which was downed by the Wildcats at the Terps’ 1 in the third quarter. Locksley conceded that the return game is emerging as an area of concern.

“We are looking for consistency back there,” he said. “We’ve had poor decision making by our returners in the kick game. Even late in the game today, we let one get behind us, and those are the ones we’ve got to be aggressive. … Special teams only gets one shot, one kill, and we’ve had some poor decisions back there, and we’re going to get that fixed.”

Have a news tip? Contact Edward Lee at eklee@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/EdwardLeeSun.