Although it”s known as the “What”s Your Deal?” game, Stanford”s wipeout of USC in Nov. ”09 carried deeper significance than the postgame exchange between coaches Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll.

The five-touchdown victory served as the coming out party for a brand of power football that would define the Cardinal”s half-decade on the national stage. Time and again, Stanford rammed the ball between the tackles and up the gut of USC”s defense — to the tune of 325 rushing yards.

Six years later, Stanford is experiencing a power outage.

The Cardinal returns to the L.A. Coliseum with a sputtering ground game and no accompanying aura of brutality. It has little chance to beat sixth-ranked USC on Saturday — or contend for the conference title — unless the switch gets flipped immediately and permanently.

“The running game is not where we want it to be, and it”s not where I thought it would be,”” offensive coordinator Mike Bloomgren said. “Consistency is always what you”re striving for.””

The deterioration began last season, when fundamental truths about the Cardinal offense – its efficiency on third down, in the red zone and in the fourth quarter – crumbled on a weekly basis. Not surprisingly, Stanford”s overall success plunged, too.

This year was supposed to be different. The offensive line, which had four new starters in 2014, would be formidable. The tailbacks would have more experience, more muscle and a better understanding of schemes. Quarterback Kevin Hogan”s mastery of the offense would allow the Cardinal to shift into advantageous plays at the line of scrimmage. Penalties would plunge. Efficiency would soar. Defenses would overload the line of scrimmage to stop the ground game, thereby opening the downfield passing attack.

And yet: In two games against flimsy opposition, the Cardinal has mustered just 3.2 yards per rush.

Three. Point. Two.

“We”ve had too many little things keep us from our four yard average,”” coach David Shaw said.

Running lanes open sporadically and close quickly. The tailbacks don”t carry would-be tacklers as often as they go down on first contact. Third-and-short, once a mortal lock – just send Toby Gerhart or Stepfan Taylor or Tyler Gaffney over left tackle – is now a coin flip.

An offense that once compared favorably to Alabama”s in the punishment it meted out got pushed around by Northwestern and struggled for a half against Central Florida.

“As a whole, we could be doing some things better,”” quarterback Kevin Hogan said.

Actually, Stanford could be doing everything better.

The power failure starts up front: The line has neither the cohesion or nastiness of Stanford”s dominant units from the 2009-13 seasons. (Look for right guard Johnny Caspers to spend time at center Saturday in an attempt to spark the running game.)

But the problems extend to the backfield.

The tailbacks don”t always spot the proper hole and rarely carry defenders for the extra yard or two that can keep drives alive. (That”s not altogether surprising: The biggest of the group, 205-pound senior Remound Wright, weighs 25 pounds less than Gaffney during his one-man show in 2013.)

The receivers drop passes regularly. Hogan misses open receivers. The offense has lacked pace and creativity. And perhaps most alarming for an offense built to grind opponents and chew up the clock, the Cardinal frequently goes in reverse.

For six consecutive seasons, Stanford ranked in the top 25 nationally in having the fewest negative-yardage plays per game. Typically, the number was three or four bad plays per game. But this year, the Cardinal ranks 110th, with 7.5 negative-yardage plays per game.

Put another way: One out of every nine plays has lost yardage, creating a barrage of third-and-long situations.

“A bad play for us should be a three-yard gain,”” Shaw said. “It can”t be a zero gain or minus-one or two.

“The biggest thing is cleaning up some of the stuff up front and the running backs” eyes,”” Shaw said. “(The running game) is not where we want it to be, but it was better last week than the week before.”

It needs to be much better this week.

Much, much better.

For more on college sports, see Jon Wilner”s College Hotline at blogs.mercurynews.com/collegesports. Contact him at jwilner@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5716.