Not one to take his foot off the gas

The USC game wasn't the first time Jim Harbaugh went for a two-point conversion with a big lead. He did it three years earlier at another big November game in Southern California. To the displeasure of Trojans fans, the Stanford coach dialed up a two-point conversion attempt with a 27-point lead and less than 7 minutes remaining last weekend. The attempt failed, but Harbaugh was unrepentant immediately after the game, saying that given the momentum his offense had at the time, "it was the right thing to do." On Monday he explained that he wanted "to make it a four-score game, plus a two-point conversion." In 2006 he went for a two-point conversion with an even bigger lead. His University of San Diego team had a 47-7 lead on Dayton when Harbaugh ordered a two-pointer. That time it worked, and the Toreros went on to a 56-14 rout in San Diego. "It's not our job to stop ourselves," Harbaugh told the San Diego Union-Tribune afterward. "The responsibility goes to them. They had beaten us 10 straight times before we beat them once. We have something they used to have - dominance in the" Pioneer Football League. The Toreros were trying to draw an invitation to the Division I-AA now Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. "Case made," Harbaugh said. They got the playoff berth and went on to a national title, led by quarterback Josh Johnson , the former Oakland Tech star now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Shootout on tap? Cal's offensive players naturally spent the week studying Stanford's defense. They also noticed what the Cardinal offense did the past two weeks, thrashing Oregon and USC to the tune of 106 points and 974 total yards. So quarterback Kevin Riley and Co. might need to score a truckload of points if the Bears want to keep the Axe. It's not entirely implausible - they have scored 45 or more points in four games this season, and Stanford's defense has surrendered 38 or more three times. "I have complete confidence in our offense," tailback Shane Vereen said. "If we need to score 40, we have confidence in ourselves to put that many points on the board - whatever we need to do to get the W. ... "We all have in the back of our mind we might need to put up as many points as possible. Whatever they bring, we'll have to answer a score with a score." A stereotype? Stanford's Toby Gerhart , the PAC-10's leading rusher, wonders if there's a stereotype against white tailbacks. "It seems that way," he said. When people who don't know him see his Stanford sweatshirt, and ask him if he plays football , he tells them he's a running back. Often they'll respond, "Oh, you play fullback." Gerhart has scored 19 rushing touchdowns and needs one more to tie Tommy Vardell 's 1991 school record. He is two rushing TDs behind Vardell's career record of 37. Party time in Tokyo : There will be Big Game parties in foreign countries to watch the game on the Armed Forces Network, and one of them will be at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. New United States Ambassador to Japan John Roos , a Stanford grad who also earned his law degree there, is giving the party in honor of Japan's new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama , who earned both a master's and a doctorate in engineering from Stanford in the 1970s. In Japan, the game will start at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. Briefly: Jahvid Best 's injury threatens to end Cal's streak of seven seasons in which a running back has gained 1,000 yards or more. Best stands at 867 and Vereen has 545. The Bears play two more regular-season games plus a near-certain bowl game. ... Riley on today's game: "It's the biggest Big Game since I've been here - you hear people talking about it. It's going to be a lot of fun." ... Stanford leads the PAC-10 in total offense, averaging 445.6 yards per game. Cal ranks fifth at 401.5.