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The maturation of Michael Bishop has been a long and occasionally slow process for the Toronto Argonauts.

It was way back in 2002 that the Argos first turned the ball over to the former Kansas State star and Heisman Trophy runner-up, hoping they were looking at both their starting quarterback of the present and future. More than five years later, Bishop will make his first CFL playoff start Sunday when the Argos play host to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the East Division final for a berth in the Grey Cup game next week.

Bishop, 31, remains a work in progress for Toronto, despite leading the team into Sunday's game on a seven-game winning streak. His talent has never been disputed. But his ability to stay cool and focused in the heat of battle remains his biggest challenge.

"[Sunday's game] is the next step for him," Argos head coach Michael Clemons said. "The next big step, to have him go in and experience the levity that he needs to have success. If the game was [on Wednesday], we might have been down a few players because he was throwing the ball through people he was so pumped up. That's part of the energy the guys thrive off of, but he has to make sure he has the levity to play within himself and not try to win the game on every play."

Football coaches are known for using all kinds of catchwords to describe the attributes they look for in their quarterbacks, such as poise, calmness, alertness and, of course, leadership. But levity?

"When I speak of levity for a great quarterback, the game moves in slow motion," Clemons said. "He sees everything before everyone else and has a sense of what is going on. He has to have the balance of the intensity he provides to his group so that they play with passion, but the clairvoyance to pragmatically do little things to make the right decisions."

Part of the reason Bishop becomes tempted to try to win a game with one big play is because, unlike a lot of quarterbacks, he is capable of doing just that with his immense arm strength. Bishop has always been one of those quarterbacks with seemingly unlimited potential to distribute the football all over the field. And yet when he's not in his groove, he can struggle as badly as any quarterback in the league.

"The best analysis of Michael Bishop is that he's like a streaky three-point shooter [in basketball], and if you let him get into a rhythm, he'll knock your lights out," Winnipeg defensive lineman Doug Brown said. "You have to hope he's not in a zone and you can't let him get in one. You have to do everything to disrupt him because if he catches on fire, you have to put it out before it becomes out of control."

The extremes of Bishop were well illustrated by Toronto's final two games of the regular season. On Oct. 27 against Winnipeg, Bishop was good on only 10 of 29 passes for 145 yards, one touchdown and one interception. The next week against Saskatchewan, he was good on 20 of 24 attempts for 366 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.

"[Winnipeg] didn't do anything I didn't expect," Bishop said. "I just couldn't get in a grove. I was throwing high and low and we had some dropped passes, but I'll take the blame for that. But the good thing is I have an opportunity to forget about it and play those guys again."

The interesting thing is that the Argos have won nearly every Bishop start — good or bad — this season, posting an 11-1 record with him as their starter. Three times during the final six weeks of the season, the Argos scored fewer than 20 points in a game and Bishop failed to complete 50 per cent of his pass attempts. But Toronto won them all.

So while the Argos will enter Sunday's game with the knowledge they can win even if Bishop isn't on his game (as linebacker Kevin Eiben suggested this week by guaranteeing the Bombers wouldn't score 10 points Sunday), they also understand what it means if he can find his groove.

"This is a big game, but in my mind, it's another stage toward our goal," Bishop said. "I'm not thinking of it as my first playoff start. I'm thinking just play and do the right things for my teammates."