Montreal Alouettes quarterback Adrian McPherson is tackled by Edmonton Eskimos linebacker Mark Restelli during first quarter CFL football action Thursday, July 9, 2009 in Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul ChiassonPaul Chiasson/The Canadian Press
It surely is all there in front of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats: A share of first place in the East Division at this stage of a CFL season for the first time since 1998, and a chance to tie the season series with the Montreal Alouettes.
As for Adrian McPherson? Well, he might be a little to the left of them. Or right. Or further right. After being out the first nine games of the 2010 season with a shoulder injury, McPherson is expected to start Saturday in place of quarterback Anthony Calvillo when the Alouettes visit Ivor Wynne Stadium.
Beyond that - well, the Ticats aren't sure where to find him. Not on videotape, that's for sure.
"Calvillo's more of a pocket passer, so when he's in trouble his response is going to be to get rid of the ball quicker - but I think with this guy, McPherson, he's going to use his legs more and look to get out of the pocket," Ticats defensive end Justin Hickman said.
"I think" - those are the key words going in against a quarterback with only three games worth of real playing time on his CFL résumé.
"Could be dangerous, not seeing much film on a guy," linebacker Otis Floyd intoned.
Really? McPherson instead of Calvillo?
Calvillo is the closest thing the CFL has to the glory days when one quarterback had the entire league playing to his tune. But it was mid-week, when Alouettes head coach Marc Trestman said Calvillo's bruised sternum meant he wouldn't get the call against the Tiger-Cats.
Enter McPherson, a 27-year-old product of Florida State University who, in parts of two previous seasons, is 50 of 75 passing with seven touchdowns and one interception.
Chris Leak, who had a deer-in-the-headlights CFL debut in the Alouettes' Week 10 loss, has a hip flexor injury.
This was already a strangely unsettling week of preparation for Ticats head coach Marcel Bellefeuille, despite a four-game win streak and the afterglow of a Labour Day victory over the Toronto Argonauts.
The Ticats played back-to-back games against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers before back-to-back games against the Argos.
Toss in the bye week, and it's six weeks and what seems like 350 Pan American Games stadium locations and a dozen odd deadlines ago since the Ticats have gone into a game without fresh evidence of what their opposition likes to do.
"To be able to get the proper scout looks and preparation was a challenge," said Bellefeuille, whose 5-4 team, with a win, will move into a first-place tie with the 6-3 Alouettes - something Hamilton media relations director Scott McNaughton whispered hasn't happened this late in a season since the 1998 Ticats were 7-2 after nine games and 8-2 after 10.
(With a win against the B.C. Lions this week, the Argonauts would make it a three-way tie atop the East.)
"It's all off film," Bellefeuille said. "You know how it works, right? It's got to be walk, talk … and chalk."
Okay, we'll buy into it to a degree.
Still, things have seldom looked as rosy in these parts.
The Ticats haven't won four in a row since 1998, when they won six consecutive games.
And now the free agent brought in to address what management felt was a lack of brute force on the offensive line, Jason Jimenez, will be at right tackle for the first time this season after missing nine games with a knee injury.
As far back as training camp, both general manager Bob O'Billovich and Bellefeuille were heralding Jimenez's "push" as a key to preventing the type of dead stop that afflicted the Hamilton running game in last season's playoff loss.
And guess what's been the biggest offensive concern this season for the Ticats?
So there you go.
"Everything's right there in our reach," Floyd agreed, with a slight shrug and without the slightest hint of bravado. "We just got to go out there and grab it."