The Oregon football program has endured many changes in this college football offseason. Those changes and their impact will be tested in the 2022 season opener against the Georgia football juggernaut. Notre Dame versus Ohio State might be the biggest game of Week 1, but Oregon versus Georgia is right behind it. Let’s make some Oregon football predictions for this showdown in Atlanta.

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If Bo Nix struggles against a Kirby Smart-coached Georgia defense, it will not come as a surprise. Georgia wore out Nix when he played at Auburn. One reason to think Nix will play well in 2022 is that he won’t be playing against SEC defenses. He will be playing Pac-12 defenses. He could be a lot better than he has been in the past. However, Nix has to play an elite SEC defense in Week 1. This is what he transferred away from. In the next 11 games, he won’t face to face an SEC team, but in Week 1, he does. It probably won’t end well for Nix in this college football showcase game.

The Georgia offense was not always a smooth-running machine last season. It certainly had its moments, and quarterback Stetson Bennett was good enough to win the national title, shutting up his critics who doubted him the whole way. However, Georgia’s offense did merit a certain degree of skepticism. It’s not as though this offense got in a groove and stayed there. Dan Lanning is a superb defensive coach. Moreover, he knows Stetson Bennett’s tendencies from having watched Bennett on the 2021 Georgia Bulldogs roster. Georgia’s offense will not run wild in this game. The most positive Oregon football predictions will include a good day for the UO defense, which will do its part.

The problem for Oregon in this matchup is the battle against Georgia’s defense. It’s true that Georgia lost Nakobe Dean, Travon Walker, and loads of other quality defensive players from the 2021 national championship roster. This is one of the deepest single-team draft classes we have ever seen, right up there with LSU’s 2019 team which — like 2021 Georgia — won the national title. Losing all those NFL-caliber players might hurt Georgia in this game.

However, what do we know about Kirby Smart at Georgia? He goes all-in on defense. If he neglects his offense to a degree, he compensates for that with his recruiting and his development of defensive players. Even if we acknowledge that Georgia football might regress this season, it’s not as though the Dawgs will be bad on defense. Last year’s defense gave up fewer than 15 points per game until Alabama thrived against UGA in the SEC Championship Game in early December. Georgia’s defense could regress this year and still allow fewer than 20 points per game. If Oregon scores 14 points, that’s still a win for Georgia. The Ducks are not going to be comfortable against a new wave of UGA defensive stars. The Dawgs simply reload at this point. They don’t rebuild.

Oregon’s defense will play well and keep the Ducks somewhat close (1o to 17 points) for two and a half or three quarters, but with Georgia’s defense dominating play throughout, the dam will eventually break in the fourth quarter. Georgia football supremacy will be felt and seen in Atlanta, probably by a score in the area of 37-13.