Courtesy Toronto Sun:

Taylor Robertson has seen Michael Bishop throw like no other quarterback in the CFL and he has seen him put his shoulder down and run like a running back.

But if Bishop is to be successful the next two Sundays, the 6-foot-6, 335-pound Argos offensive guard knows where it all starts.

“We take a lot of responsibility upon ourselves, whether the public does or not,” Robertson said yesterday. “It all starts with us. The team goes, pretty much, as far as we do.”

Understand this isn’t a running back or receiver pumping himself up in advance of tomorrow’s East final.

Nor is it a defender issuing a boast that the opponent, in this case the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, won’t score more than 10 points.

This is a big man in the trenches who knows that his brethren on the offensive line can have a profound say in what type of day awaits Bishop and the rest of the offence.

“We haven’t done the best job protecting him all season,” said Robertson, who was dealt to the Argos by the Calgary Stampeders in the off-season.

“He’s been hit too many times. Any time your quarterback is not getting smacked in the face when he’s releasing the ball, he’s got a better chance to make the throw.”

The challenge for Robertson, Glenn January, Chad Folk, Jude St. John and newcomer Jerome Davis in tomorrow’s tussle at the Rogers Centre is a big one.

For starters, they face the big defensive front of the Bombers led by Doug Brown and Jerome Haywood and on one end, quarterback hunter Tom Canada. Behind them lurks a solid group of linebackers led by star Barrin Simpson.

Few would be surprised if the Bombers target Davis, who is playing left tackle for the first time in years.

The former Argo is an emergency replacement for Mike Pearson, who broke his ankle in the season finale just as he was entrenched as a solid blind-side protector for Bishop.

Argos offensive co-ordinator Steve Buratto admitted yesterday that it has been “an uphill battle” for Davis to get up to speed with the terminology the past 10 days.

So the challenge has been to come up with plan that at the least will have the Bombers on their toes and at best allow the Argos playmakers to shine.

“They have a good front four and a good scheme,” Buratto said. “They make you really earn everything you get. They are as good as anybody in the league.

“We’ve got a number of ways to protect and hopefully the variety can keep them a little off balance. You can’t throw the ball sitting on your backside.”

Bishop knows that all to well, having had his worst game of the season against the Bombers just three weeks ago when he completed just 10 of 29 passes.

It didn’t help that Bishop was off the mark, but the big defenders from the ‘Peg were in his grill all night and that was without Brown in the lineup.

“If we don’t establish the run game, they are going to sit back and play pass defence,” Robertson said.

“If we can’t get any holes or give any protection, nothing’s going to happen. It’s plain and simple as that.”