Over at DraftKings, No. 11 Oregon is a 17-point underdog (as of publication) in its opener against the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs next Saturday. The Ducks get the honor of opening the Dan Lanning era against the defending national champions. The betting public expects them to come out on the wrong side of the battle. ESPN’s FPI gives the Ducks only an 8.5% of winning.

But a near-three-score loss? The Ducks were a 14.5-point dog on the road against Ohio State last season and pulled off a 35-28 win in what was one of the games of the year.

CBS Sports’ David Cobb probably has that game in mind.

In a mega-preview of the upcoming Pac-12 season, Cobb and six other CBS Sports writers gave their takes on overrated and underrated Pac-12 teams, the league’s finishing order, and who ultimately wins. In the “bold predictions” portion of the preview, Cobb wrote that Oregon is going to hang with Georgia in its opener.

Despite its status as a 17.5-point underdog against reigning national champion Georgia in Week 1, Oregon will compete with the Bulldogs and be within striking distance in the fourth quarter. The game will trump Ohio State vs. Notre Dame in terms of drama and watchability on the first full Saturday of college football.

Tom Fornelli also wrote that the Ducks are being overlooked a bit in Lanning’s first season. He tabbed Oregon as the Pac-12’s most underrated team:

There are plenty of reasons not to expect much from Oregon in 2022. Not only has Mario Cristobal moved on to Miami, making Dan Lanning the fifth different head coach to be in charge of the Ducks over the last 11 seasons, but key players like Kayvon Thibodeaux, Anthony Brown and Travis Dye are gone as well. But despite the defections, Cristobal’s recruiting efforts over his tenure left plenty of talent in Eugene. If Bo Nix finally finds some consistency — a big ask, I know — this is a team that will still flex its muscles in a Pac-12 conference that doesn’t have a lot of known commodities outside of Utah entering the season.

The Ducks kick off against the Bulldogs at 12:30 p.m. PT next Saturday. We’ll find out pretty early on if Cobb and Fornelli are right.