The Jim Harbaugh era started much the same way the Walt Harris era ended — in lopsided defeat. Still, even in a 45-17 UCLA rout, Stanford showed flashes of respectability missing from the Farm since Tyrone Willingham patrolled the sidelines here six years ago. Only the upcoming weeks will tell whether those glimmers of hope will prove to be mirages or the start of something bigger.

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Eddie Martinez

Redshirt senior quarterback T.C. Ostrander attempts to get off a pass during the Cardinal's 45-17 loss to UCLA on Sept. 1.

“A lot of positive things I can see from the field,” said Harbaugh. “I don’t think the score was indicative of how we played. I think we’ve got a football team now.”

That was the mood in the Stanford locker room and among the Cardinal faithful Saturday afternoon.

An offensive line that yielded an NCAA-high 50 sacks last year stopped the revolving door impression and started playing like a unit. Senior quarterback T.C. Ostrander was sacked four times but was only hurried on a few others, despite a career-high 59 pass attempts on the afternoon.

“They definitely did better today,” junior tailback Anthony Kimble said. “Guys sticking on guys, guys not blowing assignments — I feel like the line this year has a great understanding of the scheme.”

Unlike last year, the players and the playcallers fought until the end, as the Harris quick kick has made way for the Harbaugh onside kick. That’s a change 24 months too late, even though a third-quarter Aaron Zagory squib failed badly, leading to a quick UCLA touchdown.

More importantly, Harbaugh displayed a gameday awareness his predecessor sorely lacked. He saw his offense was outmatched between the tackles and was wise enough not to belabor the point, instead giving his playmakers — tailback Anthony Kimble, receivers Mark Bradford and Richard Sherman and a strong cadre of tight ends — the ball on the perimeter, in position to go one-on-one with Bruin defenders.

The players stepped up to the challenge. Kimble ran for 71 yards on 14 touches, and sophomore tight end Jim Dray caught Stanford’s first touchdown of the season on a nine-yard left-to-right drag route just before the halftime horn.

But Stanford’s most explosive play of the day belonged to sophomore Sherman, who used UCLA’s aggressive defensive scheme to his advantage on a slant-and-go route in the third quarter. An early fake to the inside saw Sherman shred one corner and receive an Ostrander lob all alone on the left sideline. The coup de grace came moments later, as Sherman paused to let two defenders over-pursue, only to cut inside and sprint the final 30 yards to paydirt untouched.

“We had seen them jumping on slants all day, jumping, jumping, and I told Coach about it, and he gave me the play I wanted,” Sherman said. “I saw him bite and just put my head down and ran as fast as I could. I saw the DB [defensive back] had an angle on me, so I acted like I was going to go for the score, but I cut back and took it in. It looked like I kind of surprised both of the DBs because they pretty much froze, so it was a great feeling.”

But amidst the hoopla, the team and the fans seemed to gloss over what went wrong. And there was plenty.

The defense struggled mightily. The Bruins racked up 624 yards, 338 of them on the ground. Running back Kahlil Bell ran over, around and through a Cardinal front seven for 195 yards and three scores. The 6.8 yards per carry allowed is a bad omen for a unit expected to be among the team’s worst.

The bigger disappointment, then, was a defensive backfield that UCLA quarterback Ben Olson and friends torched for 286 yards and five scores. UCLA’s receivers, who pale in comparison to the conference’s elite units at Cal and USC, beat returning cornerbacks Tim Sims, a senior, and junior Wopamo Osaisai for four touchdowns. The entire secondary struggled, especially on fade routes, often not locating the ball until too late, if at all.

It was Ostrander’s first start removed from Trent Edwards’ shadow, and it showed. He struggled with his accuracy and timing, misfiring on several deep balls and slants. Postgame, Harbaugh called his gunslinger “gutty,” but it seems likely that questions about his arm are preventing the coaches from fully exploring the offensive playbook.

Stanford’s running attack also didn’t do much, netting just 52 yards on 26 carries. The fact that banging sophomore tailback Toby Gerhart was a gameday scratch (hamstring injury) didn’t help matters, nor did a dominant UCLA defense returning 10 starters from last year. Even so, running between the tackles is the most fundamental element of organized football, and Stanford’s line, one of the Pac-10’s most experienced, needs to start run-blocking as well as it pass-protected.

UCLA struck first on Olson’s 19-yard fade to Joe Cowan, and a six-yard fade to Gavin Ketchum made it 14-0 just 38 seconds into the second quarter. Dray’s score halved the deficit before halftime, but UCLA responded with touchdown strikes to Dominiq Johnson and Cowan to push their lead to 28-10 in the mid-third. Stanford responded to a 39-yard Kai Forbath field goal with Sherman’s 70-yard score to pull within 31-17 with 11:25 to go. A 15-yard pass to Brandon Breazell and a 24-yard Chris Ramirez run gave UCLA its final margin.