UCLA, facing Stanford, can erase the sting of their last seven meetings

UCLA was able to beat Stanford in 2008 because the Cardinal wasn’t sure it could make one yard, even with tough-running Toby Gerhart in the backfield.

Stanford’s settling for a field goal with 2 minutes 31 seconds left allowed the Bruins enough time to drive for the game-winning touchdown.

So UCLA’s last victory over the Cardinal was made possible because Coach Jim Harbaugh had no faith in his running game.

It has been that long.

Stanford’s, and Harbaugh’s, identity took hold the following season and, since then, the Cardinal has won 62 of 79 games. That includes a 7-0 record against UCLA.

The No. 18 Bruins (4-1overall, 1-1 in Pac-12 Conference play) can possibly forge their own new identity when they face the No. 15 Cardinal (4-1, 3-0) on Thursday at Stanford. Or they may have to accept their current one.

Is UCLA ready to take a step up in class? Or are the Bruins the Clemson of the West Coast, an eight- or nine-victory team that never quite lives up to expectations?

“I think you make a mistake if you start looking at it like that,” UCLA Coach Jim Mora said. “You have to look at it like one game. That’s always been our approach. Once you start making one game being more important than another, you open yourself up to inconsistency.”

The Bruins have been nothing but consistent against the Cardinal since 2009. They play; they lose.

The seven-game losing streak matches UCLA’s longest against any team, tying the seven-year drought against USC from 1999 to 2005.

Two of the losses to Stanford stung a little more than the others. The Cardinal defeated the Bruins in the 2012 Pac-12 championship game and denied UCLA a spot in the conference title game last season with a 31-10 victory.

Neither head coach saw value in talking about the past this week.

“Most of the guys who played in those games are not even on the teams now,” said Stanford Coach David Shaw, who replaced Harbaugh after the 2010 season. “The young guys don’t remember the earlier games.”

Maybe his don’t. Some of UCLA’s do.

“The wrong thing would be to just forget about it,” UCLA junior linebacker Deon Hollins said.

Hollins said Scott White, who coaches the Bruins linebackers, told his unit: “Make sure you watch the games from a couple years back. Embrace it, and remove the feeling you had at the end of the game.”

Under Mora, UCLA has been ranked in the Associated Press media poll’s top 10 four times. Each time, it have lost the next game.

Twice it was to Stanford.

Shaw downplayed his program’s winning streak. “All the games have been different and a lot were really tight,” he said.

UCLA center Jake Brendel, a fifth-year senior who has played in or witnessed five of the losses to Stanford, acknowledged that the slide “affects you a little bit.” But he also said the Bruins try to leave the past behind.

“We always try to look at the future, what’s happening right now,” he said.

The losses to Stanford, and a six-game losing streak against Oregon, have underscored a close-but-not-good-enough level the Bruins have reached against the Pac-12’s best programs. The Ducks have won four conference titles since 2008. The Cardinal has won the other two.

“If you dwell on the past, whether it’s a positive past or not-so-positive past, it’s the wrong thing to do,” Mora said. “Our freshmen have never played Stanford. Our sophomores have played them once. You try to bring it into what it is that week.”

What it is this week is another chance for the Bruins to do something they haven’t accomplished since 2008.

chris.foster@latimes.com

Twitter: @cfosterlatimes