‘He kind of threw me a bullet’ — Tristan Wirfs has amusing take on his touchdown catch in Bucs’ win over Cardinals
Wirfs’ career first touchdown was the highlight of the day in Tampa.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers got back into the win column after a three-game absence, holding on to defeat the Arizona Cardinals 20-17 on Sunday at Raymond James Stadium.
Despite Baker Mayfield being under center and Bucky Irving making his first appearance since Week 4, the Bucs didn’t have the easiest of times moving the ball and getting into the end zone.
However, Josh Grizzard and Mayfield found a very unique way of getting into the end zone and setting off the cannons. All-Pro left tackle Tristan Wirfs pulled down his first ever touchdown shortly before halftime to give the Bucs the lead.
Afterwards, Wirfs told the assembled media in the locker room that the pass came in harder than they had been practicing during the week.
Tristan Wirfs says Baker Mayfield fired the ball harder than usual on touchdown pass against Cardinals.
“It’s crazy – all week he was giving me floaters, and he kind of threw me a bullet, so I was kind of nervous,” Wirfs said. “I was like, ‘don’t drop it’. But I was excited. I saw Budda Baker run to the right, and I was like, ‘oh my gosh, he might throw it to me’. I was kind of nervous that Budda was going to smoke me. I thought he might have read out of it. But no, it was awesome. Catching a touchdown in the NFL is the ultimate pretty cool feeling.”
Mayfield said after the game that he wasn’t exactly sure if Budda Baker was on Wirfs, so he fired it in faster than usual.
“I think he was more nervous. He hadn’t really been bugging me (to run the play). If it was Luke (Goedeke), Luke would have been begging for it. Very different individuals there, but yeah. He did a great job. I couldn’t see where Budda Baker was on the back side, so I kind of had to put a little bit of mustard on it. But he’s a good athlete. Made the good catch.”
Bowles was asked for his thoughts on the play, and he had an amusing tongue-in-cheek response about Wirfs’ reaction coming off the field.
“As soon as he came off the field, he asked me for the number eighty-seven. Had Payne not caught a ball, I would have considered it.”
The Bucs’ offense hasn’t had the explosiveness in recent weeks that we’ve seen earlier in the season, so they’ve got to find ways to get the ball down the field and into the end zone any way they can.
Hopefully they won’t have to utilize Wirfs to accomplish those goals anymore – but it’s nice to know that if they need to toss the ball his way with some zip, he can come down with it.
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