FORT COLLINS — Mike Bobo told Collin Hill he is not the savior.

The Colorado State football coach knows the true freshman quarterback will be feeling enough pressure entering his first start Saturday that he doesn’t need that added burden.

But Hill could be part of the solution for a Rams offense that is still seeking its identity heading into the contest with Northern Colorado at Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium (2 p.m.; ROOT). Without a passing game through two weeks of the season, Colorado State has been nowhere close to the offensive team he hoped to see perform.

While Hill will be the third different starter for the Rams in as many games, read the words correctly — passing game. It hasn’t been just a quarterback thing, though a 38.5 completion percentage shoulders a lot of the blame.

“We need to be more consistent at the quarterback position, and we need to be more consistent at route running,” Bobo said. “I’m not expecting us to go out there and be 70 percent passers. We’ve got to hit a few of them to keep defenses honest. How we’re keeping defenses honest right now is some of the smoke and mirrors with the motions and the quarterback runs and stuff that we’ve done.”

To get any kind of offense — and it hasn’t been much, averaging just 15 points a game — the Rams have tried everything.

There’s the traditional running attack, and junior back Dalyn Dawkins has looked good to this point (5.4 yards per carry), but that only lasts so long and Dawkins will enter the game with the Bears a bit dinged.

So the Rams have used all methods possible. Receivers Detrich Clark, Anthony Hawkins and Michael Gallup have nine carries combined for 81 yards. Faton Bauta, the starter last week at quarterback, has rushed eight times for 78 yards.

Part of it is Bobo feels the new wideouts can be play makers, and if you can’t throw them the ball, hand it to them. Part of it is that the normal plan just isn’t working.

The hope is Hill can get the Rams on track. He doesn’t have to carry the offense, but he can bring balance back to the equation with the ability to throw the ball with accuracy. He completed just 2 of his six throws last week in limited action, but both were on the money and moved the sticks.

Right now, it’s a problem Northern Colorado knows nothing about. When their starter went down last week, backup Kyle Sloter (who had played a bit of receiver the year before) came in and threw for 408 yards and six touchdowns to earn Big Sky player of the week honors.

The Bears may be an FCS school, but it is an offense that is averaging 55.5 points per game. Their play makers may be smaller, but they are making plays. While the outside world may see this as a mismatch, UNC coach Earnest Collins Jr. said the Bears aren’t making the drive in search of a morale victory.

“We’ve got a few kids on our football team that we know can play the game and they can play it the right way,” he said. “It’s the next step. We haven’t been 3-0 before since I’ve been here. You’re trying to get that next ‘W’ under your belt. CSU happens to be it, and our guys are really confident in it, and we’re going to go up there and give it all we’ve got.”

The numbers are eye-opening for the Rams, as are their own. That’s why Colorado State is really in no position to look down upon the Bears, not with a laundry list of corrections to make.

They hope the defensive riddle was solved last week, and it would go a long way toward ensuring success Saturday. Playing more physical and with an aggressive mindset, the Rams shut down UTSA in the second half last week, holding the Roadrunners to negative-1 yard rushing and shutting them out the second half.

CSU defensive coordinator Marty English, who was part of UNC’s national championship years in Division II, thinks a lesson learned the hard way will stick with his group.

“I’m hoping by the way they played that they understood that’s the way they should of played in the first game, that’s the way they should play in the next game,” he said. “Some of the success they had I hope carries over.”

Carry over is nice. The Rams’ offense hopes to be in the same position a week from now.

Mike Brohard: 970-635-3633, mbrohard@reporter-herald.com and twitter.com/mbrohard