Georgia's win over Texas showed the importance of this college football state

There is no metric that definitively shows which are the best and worst college football teams. Other than points. Maybe win or lose.

But how do they get those wins and points, we've discussed a few seemingly obscure but key metrics this season: explosive play margin and yardage per play margin. Let's add another one: sudden change margins.

And yes, the word “margin” is the theme here, because defense alone doesn't win championships anymore, nor does offense alone. Complementary football plays, and the margin captures how teams compare to offense (explosive plays and yards per play) and defense (team's opponent's explosive plays and YPP).

Here's how margins have suddenly changed: This week we checked in with TrueMedia to see how game margins are exploding in SEC games. (As a reminder, explosive is defined here as a pass of 12 or more yards and a pass of 16 yards or more.) And just like before, the team that has more explosiveness than the opponent tends to win, especially by the greater the margin.

With SEC teams…

Plus-5 explosive margin or better in that game: 34-4

Plus-1 is plus-4: 22-4

Even: 7-8

Minus-1 to Minus-4: 7-12

Minus-5 or worse: 3-11

But there was one more telling piece of news: In SEC games where both teams are ranked, the team went 6-0 with the better explosive play. There was a seventh game where the teams were explosively tied: Georgia's win over Texas. We know what else happened in that game, Georgia's defense dominated, limiting Texas to just 3.4 yards per play. But Georgia's offense didn't exactly dominate, averaging just 3.9 ypp. So why was it a wire-to-wire 15-point win for the visitors?

Red zone efficiency, an oft-cited metric, was negligible: Georgia converted on four of five trips, including three touchdowns and a field goal, while Texas got two touchdowns on three trips. Georgia was just in the red zone – and the main reason for that was turnovers, where we get sudden changes.

Georgia was plus-one in turnover margin (four to three), but what it did with those turnovers was more important. And the Longhorns didn't.

Quarterback Carson Beck was picked off on two of Georgia's first three possessions, including once in his own territory. Texas scored zero points off those first two turnovers.

But when Texas turned it over deep in its own territory on a sack by Dellen Everett, Georgia punched it in for a touchdown. When Everett picked off a pass in the second quarter, Georgia's offense scored another touchdown. Then another sack-strip late in the half led to a Georgia field goal, making it 23-0 at halftime.

Texas got a third-quarter touchdown after Beck's third interception. (Which is reversed pass interference.) And Georgia only punted after the final Texas turnover, a fumble coming down on fourth down. But the final margin in points off turnovers: 17-7 in favor of Georgia.

Sudden change is the term the coach uses. On offense, it measures how good you are at taking advantage of mistakes. On defense, it measured composure, and Georgia holding Texas to zero points on the first two turnovers — actually forcing one after the second — was the game's early turning point.

South Carolina is another case study. The Gamecocks capitalized on an early turnover to go up 21-0 at Oklahoma last week. But what stands out most about the Gamecocks is the responsiveness of their defense this year, allowing just 19 points on 12 South Carolina turnovers.

“It's huge. Obviously speed is a real thing,” South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer said. “We have a mantra here to just get the ball down. It doesn't matter what happens, defensively we have to get the ball down and get stops. So we're going to emphasize. To take the ball away. We emphasize defending the football, as everyone does. And when you get sudden changes, good or bad, we want to be able to react.”

South Carolina has the second-best rushing margin in the SEC, behind only Vanderbilt. According to TruMedia, here are the leaders in terms of turnover this season. Notice how many surprising teams are on this list:

A few other CFP contenders or surprise teams are behind: Ohio State (plus-32), Colorado (plus-31), Texas (plus-28), Army (plus-28), LSU and Tennessee (plus-27 each).

But who died last nationally, 134th out of 134 teams? If you guessed Florida State, congratulations: the Seminoles are minus-65.

In between, there are a few anomalies: Miami is minus-2, ranked 76th nationally, yet undefeated. Oregon, the nation's top team, is just plus-5. Penn State, still the other undefeated, is only plus-8.

Then there's Georgia, which may be able to credit its big win at Texas to a sudden turnover margin, but is plus-10 for the season, which helps explain some of its lopsided victories. (In the loss to Alabama, the Bulldogs were minus-7).

Here is the complete SEC list with pure turnover margin:

Meanwhile, here are the updated yard-per-play margins:

That's not necessarily predictive: After six games last year, Alabama was seventh in the SEC but moved up to third at the end of the regular season, then beat Georgia (which was second, with LSU right behind).

A lot of this can be attributed to the schedule. Both Ole Miss and Texas currently play only one AP-ranked team and three non-power conference teams. Tennessee played only one ranked team, as well as two non-power conference teams.

As with some of the others, you can point back to turnover margin as a reason: Auburn has a great YPP margin but is minus-15 in turnover margin, 95th in the country. Vanderbilt and South Carolina are barely above water in YPP margin but first and second in the SEC in turnover margin.

Another thing to consider is why things are happening the way they are.

(Photo of Georgia linebacker Dellen Everett (6), defensive end Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins (93) and linebacker Chris Cole (18) by Brett Patzke/Imagon Images)