Tristan Wirfs gives honest take on Buccaneers collapse in fourth quarter: ‘They gave it to us’

Tristan Wirfs was pretty candid on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers‘ loss against the Atlanta Falcons, a game the Buccaneers had won. Lavonte David picked off Kirk Cousins on fourth-and-15 with 1:52 left with Tampa Bay holding a 27-24 lead. All the Buccaneers needed was a first down to seal the game. 

They didn’t get that nor were in position to kick a field goal to take a six-point lead over the Falcons in the final minute. 

“We had an opportunity to close it out, and we didn’t. So, it sucks,” Wirfs said, via NFL.com. “We have three days to let it steep. It should hurt, it should suck. Just give it a couple weeks, we have the Saints next week and then they (Falcons) are coming to Tampa a couple weeks after that. Gotta move on. It sucks.”

David’s pick might have been the downfall for the Buccaneers. He picked off Kirk Cousins’ pass at the 35-yard line instead of batting it down — which would have given the Buccaneers the ball at the 20-yard line with 1:44 left. 

The Buccaneers got the ball at the Falcons’ 27 and ended up losing 13 yards on a holding penalty by Graham Barton, followed by a short pass to Rachaad White that lost two yards, then a 1-yard run by Bucky Irving on third down.  Tampa Bay lost 14 yards after the interception, forcing the Buccaneers to punt instead of kicking a field goal and taking a 30-24 lead with just over a minute to play.

That 1:20 was all Kirk Cousins needed to get in position for Younghoe Koo to kick a tying field goal to force overtime. A touchdown would have been much harder for Cousins and the Falcons, which would have been the case if David just tips a fourth down pass to the ground. 

Again, not David’s fault. Just a series of poor execution that followed. 

“I’m pissed. I’m not happy about it,” Wirfs said. “It was right there. They gave it to us. They threw the Lavonte pick and said, ‘Here you go. You guys win.’ And we shitted down our leg. So, we need to move on.”

The loss gave the falcons the NFC South lead at 3-2, holding the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Buccaneers. Tampa Bay could have had full control of the division. 

“Just got to learn how to close out games,” said Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles, via a transcript provided by the team. “We had opportunities on both sides of the ball. We didn’t finish. Did some good things. We did a lot of bad things to lose the ball game. 

“So, we’ll get some rest, we’ll some guys healthy, and we’ll get ready for next week. We’ve got a good football team. We didn’t finish the game.”