The only statistic that matters in football is winning.

But everyone has seen it before -- in a news conference or after a game, a coach gets handed the box score (and he already knows who won and who lost) and his eyes dart to one or maybe two different stat lines on the page.

So, what's that coach looking at?

We asked several Pac-12 coaches.

"You start from the turnover margin, see what we did there," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. "That, to me is the most important stat other than the final score and the most indicative stat as far as correlating to winning and losing."

"I think the turnover deal is what drives football and typically you can tell who won ball games just by looking at who created the turnovers and who didn't turn the ball over," Cal coach Sonny Dykes echoed.

And so far, both of those coaches have reason to be happy when looking at that stat -- the Utes and Bears lead the conference in turnover margin.

Utah (plus-12) has only turned the ball over seven times but its defense has forced opponents into 19 turnovers. Cal, on the other hand, has forced opponents into a Pac-12 best 21 turnovers, but its offense hasn't been as strong, coughing up the ball 16 times.

Unsurprisingly those two teams also lead the conference in the margin of points scored off turnovers. Cal has scored 41 more points off opponent turnovers than its opponents have scored off the Bears' turnovers. And Utah has scored 35 more points off its opponent turnovers. USC comes in third having scored 34 more points off its opponents' 10 turnovers than opponents have scored off the Trojans' seven.

But a few other coaches had some interesting statistics they looked to as well. Here's a quick rundown:

STANFORD COACH DAVID SHAW: First-down efficiency, third-down efficiency and red zone efficiency -- offensively and defensively.

Offensive first-down efficiency: Currently, the Trojans are the best in the conference when it comes to first downs, averaging 7.9 yards per first downs. Shaw's team comes in second, averaging a nice 7.4 yards per first down.

Defensive first-down efficiency: Washington has put together the best defense in the conference this season (345 yards/game) so it shouldn't come as a surprise that the Huskies are great on first downs, leading the conference by allowing just 4.6 yards per first down play from opponents. The Sun Devils (4.9) and Cardinal (5.0) are the second- and third-best teams with defensive first down efficiency.

Offensive third downs: Stanford (46.8 percent), Arizona (46.7 percent) and Cal (44.4 percent) have been the best offensively on third downs this season.

Defensive third downs: Cal (37.1 percent), Oregon (37.3 percent) and UCLA (37.4 percent) have been the strongest on third downs this season.

Offensive red zone efficiency: Stanford (74.1 percent), Washington State (70.4 percent) and USC (69.2 percent) have had the most success in the red zone (touchdowns/red zone attempts).

Defensive red zone efficiency: Washington (36.4 percent), UCLA (50 percent) and Stanford (52.9 percent) have been the best red zone defenses this season (touchdowns/red zone attempts).

WASHINGTON COACH CHRIS PETERSEN, ARIZONA STATE COACH TODD GRAHAM: Rushing yards -- offensively and defensively.

Both Petersen and Graham mentioned rushing yards as a key stat after the turnover margin.

"How well we ran the football, how well we stopped the run -- that can have some impact on scoring," Graham said.

As far as total rushing yards, Oregon and Arizona currently lead the conference with 297 rushing yards a game. Stanford -- thanks to Christian McCaffrey's past few huge games -- sits in third (227 rushing yards per game) while UCLA is fourth with 198 rushing yards per game.

The Wildcats boast a Pac-12-best 6.6 yards per rush -- helped by quarterback Jerrard Randall's 11.1 yards per rush average -- while the Ducks (5.9 yards per rush) and Bruins (5.3 yards per rush) have been paced by Royce Freeman and Paul Perkins, respectively.

Defensively, Utah leads the league, allowing just 114 rushing yards per game. Arizona State has been stout, giving up 129 rushing yards per game, while Washington -- with a defensive front that many questioned coming into this year -- is right behind ASU, allowing just 130 rushing yards per game.

Yards-per-rush allowed shakes out a bit differently, though. The Husky defense has given up a conference-best 3.1 yards per rush while the Sun Devils (3.2 yards per rush) and Utes (3.7 yards per rush) aren't far behind.