Tristan Wirfs made the wildest play of the Buccaneers season

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers got the bounce-back win they needed against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, holding on for a 20-17 victory. It was an ugly win, but one that had a pretty beautiful moment earlier in the game that helped get things across the finish line.

The Bucs welcomed back several of their stars, while honoring a former on Sunday. Bucky Irving returned to the offense and promptly put up 81 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown. In his second week back with an increased workload, Chris Godwin came down with three receptions for 78 yards. And Ben Bredeson helped keep quarterback Baker Mayfield upright with extra time in the pocket he’s been missing over the past few games. 

However, out of all the offensive performances, Tristan Wirfs stole the show. The All-Pro tackle put the first touchdown on the board on Sunday with his first career reception and score on a two-yard grab. 

It was a clever play design where the Bucs brought in Charlie Heck as an extra tackle and lined him up next to Luke Goedeke. Wirfs blocked his man for a moment, but then released and was all alone in the endzone. Baker Mayfield said Wirfs was kind of nervous and hadn’t been asking for it, but made the catch when it counted. 

“I think he was more nervous,” Mayfield said. “ He hadn’t been bugging me for it. Now, if it was Luke (Goedeke), he would have been begging for it. Very different individuals there. He did a great job. I couldn't see where Budda Baker was on the back side, so I had to kind of put a little mustard on it. But he’s a good athlete; he made a good catch.”

Wirfs admitted after the game that he was a little nervous after Mayfield was tossing him easy passes during practice all week. 

“It’s crazy all week he was giving me floaters, he kind of threw me a bullet so I was a little nervous,” Wirfs said.” I was just like, “Don’t drop it.” I was excited. I saw Budda Baker run to the right and thought, “Oh my gosh, he might throw it to me.” I was kind of nervous Budda was going to smoke me; I thought he might have read out of it. But it was awesome catching a touchdown in the NFL. It's a pretty sweet feeling.”

Head coach Todd Bowles got a kick out of it, with Wirfs asking to change his jersey number to a more traditional receiver number. 

“As soon as he came off the field, he asked for number 87,” Bowles said. “If Payne (Durham) didn’t catch a ball, I would’ve considered it.”

I don’t know how many more, if any, opportunities Wirfs will have to catch a touchdown pass, but the Bucs know he has the hands to come down with it.