Cobourne And Alouettes Benefit From Playing In The East

Avon Cobourne is having a career year in his third season with the Montreal Alouettes. There is a lot of early talk of it possibly being an MVP season for the short and strong back from West Virginia. There is also talk of Cobourne reaching a milestone never reached in the CFL—he is on pace to eclipse 1000 yards rushing and 1000 yards receiving.

After watching a week of football without the West teams, I have been realizing that the difference in quality between the divisions is not even close to the same. Montreal is the cream of the Eastern crop, and deserve to be in the No. 1 spot.

What I am questioning is how well the Als would fare in the west. Would they have a winning record, and would Cobourne be even close to the same statistics?

So I did some research and some number punching to see how Avon would do in the much better Western division.

Avon Cobourne is on pace right now to rush for 1526 yards, and receive for 1034 yards. Those stats are based on these averages:

Yards Per Game           Rushing      Receving   Projected  Rushing  Receiving

vs East                        111             60                         1110         600

vs West                        52              54                          416         434

Totals                                                                        1526        1034

So having said that, here are the stats if those averages transferred over to a West-heavy schedule:

Yards Per Game          Projected  Rushing  Receiving

vs East                                        888          480

vs West                                       520          540

There isn't much of a difference between the averages. It would be different if they had to play Calgary or Saskatchewan four times in the season. Both teams held Cobourne to a total of 29 yards in the two games he played against them.

Having said that, I still think his numbers would be very close, if not at the thousand/thousand mark, in whatever situation you put him in.

Avon Cobourne is an all-star back wherever he plays. His strength and low centre of gravity at 5'8" 200 lbs makes his a tough back to bring down, and his ability to burn linebackers catching passes out of the backfield has made for a deadly combination to try to defend.

Looking at his game stats for the year, no team has been able to shut down both aspects in one game. The closest any team came was when the Alouettes hosted Calgary in Week Three. Cobourne rushed for 23 yards and caught for 66. He still had 89 yards from scrimmage, which is pretty good if that's your low game for the year.

Now transfer these thoughts to the Alouettes as a team. If they were in the West, I don't think they would be nearly as successful in the win column. However, even if they finished fourth, would still be good enough to cross over for an East playoff game, and would be in the East final.

So what's the difference? Not much. Cobourne is still an all-star, and the Als will still lose to a West team in the East Final.