Former NFL Offensive Lineman: Tristan Wirfs Got Jobbed
November 24th, 2021
Victimized?
It was late in the first half. The Bucs had the ball and were looking to widen their 17-10 lead on the hapless Giants.
And it looked like they were about to. Chris Godwin took a short pass over the middle and rambled 34 yards to the Giants-1 with a minute left. But no!
Instead, the zebras threw a rare flag on Tristan Wirfs. The wall of a right tackle was busted for holding. TV cameras showed Bucs coach Bucco Bruce Arians arguing with the zebras.
Tampa Bay ended up punting from midfield and never did score the rest of the half. While that play didn’t matter, it still was bothersome to Joe that such a cool play and a chance to score was wiped out.
Former NFL offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz was outraged by the flag. Schwartz, who does a lot of national sports radio and television, took to Twitter to break down the play where Wirfs was busted for holding.
Schwartz is adamant that Wirfs was not holding at all and detailed on the film to explain why. In short, Schwartz said Wirfs got jobbed by the zebras.
(Joe isn’t sure anyone caught this but just as BSPN was going to commercial after a Bucs punt, Joe swore he saw two Giants going after Wirfs. It was almost like they were trying to take him out or fight him. Wirfs got away. There was zero mention of this on the broadcast. Was Joe the only person to notice? Wirfs is a monster and Joe is convinced he has a permanent smile on his face. Joe would pity the poor fools that actually somehow got under Wirfs’ skin. That may not be a smart move.)
You can see Schwartz’s breakdown of the Wirfs “penalty” below.
🔊 to why this block by Tristan Wirfs is not holding. Outside hand to outside pec. Then Wirfs overpowers the DE with his strength to finish the block. pic.twitter.com/jpKcZvBeyB
— Geoff Schwartz (@geoffschwartz) November 23, 2021
November 24th, 2021 at 5:14 am
How does Steve Levy have that job? Is Pete living in reality or a bad simulation? Levy kept calling Chis Godwin “Goodwin”. He’s worse than Gene Deckerhoff
November 24th, 2021 at 5:30 am
As expected, a bad call and basically cost the Bucs 7 points.
The play you mentioned Joe with Wirfs and two Giants was following a successful field goal ( I believe ). Wirfs absolutely manhandles the competition and they simply don’t like it.
November 24th, 2021 at 5:35 am
Gene Deckeroff is God.
November 24th, 2021 at 6:00 am
Being that I’m a Bucs fan, I always want the calls to go their way. Being a Defensive End in the day, there seems to be holding on every play in the NFL. How and when it’s called sometimes seems that the NFL is trying to keep the games close so the viewers won’t turn it off.
I saw that too Joe, the Wirfs “scuffle”, but thought it was after an extra point had been kicked. I could be wrong, I only watched the game once, live.
November 24th, 2021 at 6:17 am
in basketball its called flopping.
November 24th, 2021 at 6:22 am
Joe,
The FG where they took a run at Wirfs can be viewed here via the NFL’s official youtube channel
https://youtu.be/VlC1Xb_elt4?t=577
Also, did you happen to catch after the game the first person Brady sought out was Mike Glennon!! Cue Twilight Zone music…..
November 24th, 2021 at 6:49 am
Horrible call. The phantom call on Evans for illegal formation was even worse. Some sketchy spit going on with officials this year. The KC/DAL game was a laugher. Announcers lauding KCs D when their DBs were back to getting away with grabbing and holding all game. Helped the Bucs but still hard to watch.
November 24th, 2021 at 6:49 am
“Holding, offense number 78 because he is alot stronger than 51 and threw him down”
November 24th, 2021 at 7:14 am
in Hockey its called diving! If thats holding then if I were a DE I would just drive into the lineman and as soon as he made contact I’d spin and fall and get the call.
November 24th, 2021 at 7:23 am
They been jobbing the Bucs all year.
November 24th, 2021 at 7:38 am
Refs made a bad call against the Bucs….what else is new?……At least on this one, it could be argued and from some angles it looked like holding. In effect, Wirfs was so powerful in their eyes….it had to be holding.
November 24th, 2021 at 7:53 am
Yup. Two horrible calls that had a material impact on the game scores.
Maybe the refs were trying to keep the score close.
November 24th, 2021 at 8:14 am
There will be no Gene Deckeroff slander here.
Gator fans smh
November 24th, 2021 at 8:16 am
As long as Jensen is a Buc, no D lineman are going to win a fight with our O line.
November 24th, 2021 at 8:29 am
if thats holding then if im a DE then i just drive into the lineman and spin so his hand is on my shoulder then i fall annd get the call. just terrible!
November 24th, 2021 at 9:01 am
Ok, sorry Bucs fans, he had him in a choke hold which is illegal in most states now. That was a hold.
November 24th, 2021 at 9:59 am
Two Giants (Leonard Williams and Dexter Lawrence) also went after Wirfs on the Succop FG to go up 27-10. They both tried to lift him up off the ground and then drove him back way past where Succop & Pinion were standing and past the whistle until the red came over and got in-between. Just before the broadcast went to commercial it panned over to Wirfs (now 10 yards away from both the Giants’ DT’s but still looking in each other’s directions) and he gave them both a little bit of his inner Hulk Hogan/flexed on them!
November 24th, 2021 at 10:05 am
To be honest, I thought it was a hold too when I watched the game. When you see it in slow motion and you notice how Wirfs used his strength and leverage, you realize that it wasn’t a hold. The ref threw the flag based on the bend of Wirfs’ right elbow, but not its actual position. Many O linemen hold (not always called) by grabbing an D lineman by the upper shoulder pads using their elbow, similar to what looks like a choke hold. Usually the bend of the elbow of the holding O lineman is across the numbers, that isn’t what happened here.
Arians caught it in real-time, but the ref didn’t. That’s the problem, this league runs monstrously large profits and yet the owners are too cheap to pay for full-time professionals to officiate the games.
November 24th, 2021 at 10:09 am
Point to ponder. With gambling on NFL becoming legal all over the place, what’s the price a ref can get to throw a game??
November 24th, 2021 at 10:21 am
Somebody should show this to brooks/tiki so they knows why we didn’t have a bigger lead at the half
November 24th, 2021 at 10:28 am
Gene is fantastic at his job and is a great person too.
November 24th, 2021 at 10:30 am
Fantastic person. Fantastic voice. But either Gene Deckerhoff has a blind spotter or he’s really slipping. He can barely get through two plays without misidentifying players. He always goofed up ID’ing players but it’s getting bad.
November 24th, 2021 at 12:59 pm
That was LeBronesque for sure, flop rule next up for American football/Soccer!! How about the illegal formation on Evans???? I’ve watched it a dozen times and there is nothing to see period even Peyton n Eli said so… Bad call
November 24th, 2021 at 1:10 pm
I noticed that when it happened and they showed the replay and the announcer said easy call. I remember thinking… What a load of BS!!!
He was in perfect position and he either spun the defender or the defender spun a little on his own. He was not holding him.
Then there was the phantom call on Mike Evans for illegal formation
November 24th, 2021 at 1:31 pm
I have noticed when the Defense is on the field on 3rd down and they look about to get a stop. Flag!
When the offense has a large gain to keep a drive going. Flag!
Basically a large game changing play. A play that could lead to Tampa solidifying the lead.
The past three games Tampa has gotten the dirty end of the stick with penalties.
Those back to back roughing the passer penalties in the Saints game. Come to mind. One penalty took away an INT.
Last night the Illegal Formation call on Evans was terrible. The announcer didn’t understand it either. Took away a large gain by Fournette.
That holding call against Wirfs was called because it looked like Wirfs had his hand on the outside of the shoulder. But that was only because 51 tried to spin. That weak holding call took away a 34yd gain to the Giants 1yd line by Godwin.
As a football fan you expect calls to not go your way. But apparently if your a small market team beating a large market team in prime time expect more calls to not go your way.
Also I’m still upset about that Conte leaping penalty.
November 24th, 2021 at 2:12 pm
To be fair – in the slow-mo replay you can clearly see Wirfs holding onto the Defender’s jersey by the edge of the left arm sleeve. Happens on almost every play. But it was technically holding….
November 24th, 2021 at 2:26 pm
Medicated Pete Says:
November 24th, 2021 at 5:14 am
“How does Steve Levy have that job?…He’s worse than Gene Deckerhoff.”
Impossible. Gene is his own unique brand of terrible. He should have been put out to pasture over a decade ago.
I don’t listen to other teams’ radio announcers, but he MUST be the worst: He gets something wrong on almost every snap. Listening to him call a game is confusing and utterly frustrating. Good riddance already!!!
November 24th, 2021 at 2:56 pm
I said it at the beginning of the season: the Bucs going back to the Super Bowl is all going to depend on the narrative of what the League wants.
November 24th, 2021 at 3:36 pm
Buc4evr Says:
November 24th, 2021 at 5:35 am
“Gene Deckeroff is God.”
There is no god. Or rather, there are literally THOUSANDS of gods that we human mammals (1/2 of a chromosome away from a chimpanzee!) have created.