Chris Godwin celebrates a catch in the win over Arizona.

It was weird. Joe should be bouncing off the walls, happy as hell over a win. Oh, and Joe is happy, no doubt. But that “win” didn’t pass the smell test yesterday. But hey, a win is a win and that means today is Victory Monday! So let’s get rolling.

The Tristan Wirfs Touchdown

This play almost had a life of its own. Two weeks ago during a media scrum after a practice, a subject was how to get Tristan Wirfs involved in the offense more. He was told Vita Vea caught a touchdown pass in 2019 and reminded Vea had been used as a fullback.

Wirfs said he’d love to get the chance.

Then the local pen and mic club asked about him catching a touchdown. Cool, Wirfs said. Any chance to tote the rock. A lineman’s dream.

When Wirfs was asked if there were any calls in the playbook to get him the ball, he suddenly got very coy and after smiling and looking around the room, said something along the lines of, we will see.

We didn’t have too long to wait.

Wirfs said yesterday the Bucs actually installed a play for him to catch a pass. A touchdown pass. Then this past week, the Bucs began practicing the play. It may come true!

In practice, Wirfs said, Mayfield just lobbed the ball to him. Yesterday when the play was called, Mayfield said he didn’t know where Cardinals safety Budda Baker was on the backside. So Mayfield said he couldn’t dilly-dally around.

Wirfs said Mayfield threw him a hard pass, which he didn’t expect. But Wirfs pulled that ball in like he was an eight-year tight end veteran.

The play was beautiful. It was a misdirection and Mayfield looked right. The entire Arizona defense took the bait and faded there.

Joe isn’t sure how a 6-5, 320-pound human can sneak into the end zone but Wirfs sure did. As Bucco Bruce Arians would say, he was “wide-ass open.” And Mayfield hit him in the hands.

Wirfs said he that once in high school had a scoop-and-score but never an offensive touchdown. Until yesterday.

Chris Godwin Is Back!

The other cool thing from yesterday that jumped out at Joe was how Chris Godwin looked like Chris Godwin. He had 78 yards on 3 catches. Yeah, he had an ugly drop of a touchdown. But Joe’s looking at the half-full glass this morning with Godwin.

Yesterday was Godwin’s fourth game if this season. In his previous three, he just didn’t look himself. In fact, he looked cooked, at least in his first two games.

Now Joe doesn’t know if Godwin is finally pain-free from his fibula ordeal or if Godwin got his speed back finally, or if Godwin just shook the rust off. But boy, Godwin looking like himself for a change really got Joe stoked.

Bucky Irving Looks Back, Too

Another guy who may be back is Bucky Irving. He hadn’t played since the Philadelphia game in Septemeber. And early on yesterday he looked it, but that appeared to be more rust than anything.

Once Bucky got warmed up, he started running like Joe remembered with quick cutbacks and ability to weave through a defense to get to the outside. The guy just has a nose for the open field.

Bucky finished with an average of 3.6 yards per run. Not great, but again, he got better as the game went on. A promising sign for the Bucs, who need all of Baker Mayfield’s hurt weapons back as soon as possible.

The Cavalry Is Coming?

Last week in Los Angeles Joe noticed Jalen McMillan on the Bucs’ sideline with no neck brace. Joe thought that was a very good sign.

McMillan broke a bone in his neck when undercut by Steelers camp meat cornerback Daryl Porter in a worthless preseason game in August. McMillan has been out since.

Seeing McMillan in Los Angeles, Joe thought if the Bucs were concerned about his neck, no way they would let him fly cross country and no way they would let him on the sidelines, which can be dangerous. So Joe was hopeful McMillan’s ordeal was coming to a conclusion. 4

Then yesterday morning Ian Rapoport reported McMillan could return to practice this week. That would be awesome!

Yesterday, Joe noticed Mike Evans bouncing around. He, too, was on the sidelines, on injured reserve recovering from a broken clavicle. Remember seeing McMillan on the Bucs’ bench in Los Angeles, Joe wondered if Evans is nearing a return.

The Bucs wouldn’t let Evans on the sidelines during a game if they were unsure of his health, right?

Sure enough, in the same story about McMillan, Rapoport buried that Evans could return to practice next week, prior to the Dixie Chicks game.

So it appears that dust cloud in the horizon is the cavalry.

Bucs Are Going To Need The Cavalry

Yes, yes, yes. Joe knows the Bucs held the Cardinals to their second-lowest scoring output of the season. Here, Joe is just talking about eyeballs:

Did that look like a dominant Bucs defense on Sunday to you? Sure, it was awesome the Bucs got a four-and-out to close the game. Take that away, and the defense just didn’t look good.

Arizona had too easy a time moving the ball. Jacoby Brissett just carved the Bucs up with short passes up the middle.

And when the Bucs had the ball, man, every time the Bucs had a chance to deliver the knockout punch, they instead settled for a long field goal or punted. Yes, on offense, the Bucs had really good plays here or there, but not enough for more than a couple of sustained drives.

A good playoff team would have put a boot on the Cardinals’ throat and put that game away. Put Arizona out of its misery. The Bucs currently look like a team that will get boat-raced in the wild card round, if they make the playoffs.

The Bucs are going to need the cavalry.

There’s something just not right about this team. In the past month, Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield, Bucs icon linebacker Lavonte David and now Bucs coach Todd Bowles unloaded on teammates for not hustling and not giving their all, a lack of killer instinct.

Three times in four weeks. Why? Have people tuned out Mayfield? David? Bowles?

Joe learned Bowles unloaded on his defense on the sidelines just before tit ook the field for the four-and-out to secure the win.

Why does this team need to be constantly read the riot act to play right? There’s something not right. Joe isn’t sure what that is. But the team better figure it out soon.

In 10 days, Kirk “509” Cousins comes to town.