PASADENA >> The previous time UCLA played Stanford, Christian McCaffrey rushed for more than 200 yards.

This time, he ran for 100 yards — twice.

After reaching the century mark on his 18th carry, McCaffrey was pushed backward by the stingy Bruins on his 19th attempt, retreating to 99 yards on a night when one of the flashiest players in college football remained notably dimmed.

Any time an offense goes in reverse, that’s great news for the defense, the UCLA defense producing great news for most of Saturday night.

McCaffrey, however, went beyond 100 yards again on his 20th carry, this time for good, and his similarly unyielding Cardinal teammates followed along, finally breaking the Bruins in the game’s closing seconds to do what Stanford always does:

Beat UCLA.

The final was 22-13 despite the Bruins controlling McCaffrey, leading for nearly three quarters and pummeling the Cardinal with a defense that permitted only 77 passing yards until the last drive.

“That’s about as difficult as it gets,” UCLA coach Jim Mora said. “We gotta recover. We gotta rebound.”

This was an opportunity the Bruins had been eying since last season, the coaching staff even going so far this summer as to change their practice drills to emphasize a tougher approach to stopping Stanford’s brand of muscle football.

As dramatic as that sounds, how dramatic does nine consecutive losses sound? That is UCLA’s fate now in this series, the Bruins’ most recent victory over Stanford coming in 2008.

On a more personal note, Mora is 0-6 against the Cardinal, the coach who loves to keep as much as possible secret about his team probably wishing he could prevent the disclosure of that particular statistic.

“Every loss stings,” Mora said. “It stings when you lose like that, when you played so courageously and did such a great job against a really good team.”

The Bruins did, in fact, just about everything they needed to do to beat Stanford, without actually beating Stanford.

And it started by limiting McCaffrey, who can be as hard to contain as a rumor on the Internet.

He converted the first third down of the game with a 7-yard reception. On the next play, McCaffrey rushed for 13 yards. On the next play, he rushed for 13 more.

By the time Stanford had gone 50 yards in 10 plays and taken a 3-0 lead, McCaffrey had 39 total yards and the Cardinal seemed to have set a tone that felt eerily familiar around here.

But, for the rest of the first half, he would gain only 33 more total yards, as the Bruins defense countered with its own tone.

“I thought we tackled well,” defensive coordinator Tom Bradley said of defending McCaffrey. “He didn’t break any long ones, which was one of our goals. I think that’s why the score was where it was during the game.”

McCaffrey’s longest play from scrimmage was a 13-yard run. His longest kick return covered 14 yards, UCLA’s JJ Molson repeatedly neutralizing Stanford’s biggest weapon with kickoffs that resembled infield flies.

The Bruins didn’t limit their punishment to McCaffrey’s reputation and Heisman Trophy campaign.

A potential defining moment appeared in the second quarter. On second-and-7 from the UCLA 29-yard line, the Cardinal’s Ryan Burns wasn’t just sacked by Jacob Tuioti-Mariner, he was smothered by the 285-pound lineman, setting up third-and-15.

That’s when — Stanford being annoyingly efficient and unrelenting Stanford — completed a 17-yard pass, Burns-to-Francis Owusu, efficiently and unrelentingly reaching an unlikely first down.

Before the play was completed, however, UCLA defensive back Tahaan Goodman nailed Owusu with a helmet-to-face hit that wasn’t ruled as targeting but certainly qualified as a bull’s-eye.

As a dazed Owusu crumpled, the ball came loose and Adarius Pickett recovered for the Bruins, ending Stanford’s possession at the front door of the red zone and setting up a field-goal drive that would make it 10-3 at halftime.

Then later, in the final minutes of the third quarter, came another potential defining sequence.

Immediately after allowing a 30-yard gain on a reverse, the UCLA defense again turned away Stanford’s power with power of its own.

The Cardinal had a first down at the Bruins’ 21 but could advance the ball only three more feet before settling for a field goal.

Add in the fact that linebacker Kenny Young’s interception set up UCLA’s only touchdown and this had all the appearance of a game won by the Bruins and won on defense.

But then the final drive began, Stanford going 70 yards in 10 plays and Burns passing for 66 of his 137 yards.

“They made some plays that they hadn’t been making,” Mora said. “We didn’t change coverages. We didn’t change approach. We didn’t change philosophy.

“That’s a good football team. They have a reputation of being able to do that, and they did.”

They sure did, did it again, for the ninth time in a row, a drive well executed and a reputation well earned.