The general nationwide belief that USC is going to lose at least one, if not all, of its tough three-game stretch against Oregon, Cal and Notre Dame took some strange twists and turns this weekend. Oregon was thrashed by Wazzu, a team USC managed to beat at the Palouse.

But the Ducks’ performance was a footnote compared to the efforts put out by one-loss “national title contenders” Cal and Notre Dame. The Golden Bears needed overtime to knock off Washington, a midlevel Pac-10 team playing with its backup quarterback.

And if a one-loss contender rallying to escape a midlevel Pac-10 team with a backup QB sounds familiar, that’s because Mighty Notre Dame did the same thing.

We’re not saying that USC isn’t going to lose to at least one of those teams, but after watching their upcoming opponents this weekend, we just don’t expect USC to roll over and cower in fear from any of them. Then again, if they barely escape OSU and Stanford, we might be persuaded to change our minds.