There is tattoo over Michael Bishop's heart.

It says: 'Lord Knows.'

"I got it when a lot of people were doubting my skills," said the star of last night's 14-6 Argos win over Winnipeg, which is to say, he could have gotten it almost anytime over the past four years.

"I wanted to say, the Lord knows what I am blessed with and there's nobody who can take that away from me."

And there, in a nutshell, is the thing about Bishop.

It's why, with Bishop trotting off the field with a 14-point lead midway through the third quarter, Argos coach Pinball Clemons pushed his puss into Bishop's face mask.

"Great job. I love you, buddy. Now finish it."

And he did. In his second start in three years, Michael Bishop finished it with just one interception. Another, a hideously bad one late in the fourth, was wiped out by a penalty.

He was a delight, last night, was Bishop, a 28-year-old football vagabond who, by virtue of his play last night, made himself an overnight sensation in his fourth professional football league.

Cut by the Indianapolis Colts, New England Patriots and the Green Bay Packers, Bishop was an irregular who hadn't started in two years.

But you can't give up on a 6-foot-1 quarterback who runs like a freight train and loses his watch just by hailing a cab.

Bishop threw for 300 yards, made good on 16 of 27 attempts and added another 96 yards rushing on 10 carries.

Suddenly, at the halfway point of their season, the Argos are a tidy 6-3 and radically different from the team they were two weeks ago when their quarterback was the sage and ageless Damon Allen.

The Argos have gone from blue chip to energy stocks. The professional appraises risk like an actuary. He avoids turnovers. He thinks big picture.

So it falls to Clemons: How do you tell a young man who can do anything that he can't?

"You don't," Clemons said, "but you tell him he needs to continue to develop."

Truth be told, the Bombers are an easy mark. They are a poor defensive team with two regulars out of their secondary playing for a new coach. It will get much harder for Bishop and it is so easy to dwell on his astonishing physical gifts. Bishop is attracted by the good, disdainful of the bad. It's his nature. He's an optimist. Gamblers always are.

"Sometimes you've just got to sit back and let him play," Clemons said of the challenge of managing the gifted athlete. "You've got to take the good things with the bad things."

There were eye-popping displays of passing accuracy last night. Bishop completed seven of his first 10 and two of those were dropped by Robert Baker.

For much of that time, Bishop was everything he hasn't been in his struggles with the Argos and everything Allen had been -- poised, resourceful, patient.

Bishop threw downfield, but rarely into something other than single coverage and usually safely under the cover man. Late in the first quarter, it was show time, a 67-yard touchdown pass that carried 60 yards downfield and found R. Jay Soward.

How did you know there had to be a but?

Well, there was the interception at the Bombers 10 on a pass in the second-last minute of the half to abort a drive that should have resulted in an Argo field goal.

Hate to remind you of the first quarter fumble at the Winnipeg goal line that cost another seven. Still, there was so much to like.

Lord knows.