![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Wirfsrightbench.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nControl your own destiny.<\/p>\n
Tristan Wirfs seemed to signal to Bucs fans, the team screwed up.<\/p>\n
Down the stretch, which everyone assumed would have been the moist cake of the Bucs schedule, was when the Bucs shat their pants. And they\u2019re paying for that now by watching the first round of the playoffs from their couches, just like you and Joe.<\/p>\n
Wirfs, the All-Pro tackle, said today on locker clean out day, that the Bucs set themselves up for misfortune by not taking care of business after the bye.<\/p>\n
Particularly galling were losses to inferior teams New Orleans, Atlanta and Carolina \u2014 the first two at home, the third on the road, all in a row.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough leaving it in someone else\u2019s hands,\u201d Wirfs said of needing the hated slimy Saints to beat Atlanta so the Bucs could back door their way into the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Atlanta beat New Orleans on Sunday, ending the Bucs\u2019 season.<\/p>\n
While missing the playoff hurts, Wirfs said, at least they won the final game of the regular season against Carolina to keep their hopes alive for about 20 hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt a lot better than if we just lost straight up [against Carolina],\u201d Wirfs said. \u201cNot the way we wanted the year to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
So now we all wait, and players like Wirfs wonder who their coaches for 2026 will be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No Excuses From Tristan Wirfs January 5th, 2026 Control your own destiny. Tristan Wirfs seemed to signal to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,2599,2598,7,6,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-657398","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-bucs-message-boards","10":"tag-bucs-news","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-tampa-bay","14":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","15":"tag-tampabay","16":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115845748269124701","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}