Hear from Tampa Bay Buccaneers T Tristan Wirfs, LB Lavonte David, CB Zyon McCollum, WR Jalen McMillan & C Graham Barton as they speak to the media following the Bucs’ game against the Washington Commanders in the NFC Wild Card Round of the 2024 NFL Season.
Yeah, I mean, I mean any loss in the playoffs is tough. You know, there's only one team is gonna be happy at the end of the year.
So yeah, it sucks.
I mean, worked our balls off this year, played our balls off.
You know, these things sucks.
So many people in this locker.
Room talked about the sentiment that you felt like this team was built for the playoffs.
The mentality was there. What was the difference Maybe in the execution we saw it on field.
Yeah, some penalties put us behind the sticks a couple of times. That's hard to you know, it's hard to overcome. And in the in the type ball game like that, you know, we knew it was gonna be close. We knew it was gonna be a shootout. Yeah, you know, it's gotta be cleaner. That's those things. You know, we know we can be better. And that's the hard part about it. You know, well, we got a long time to think about this one, and that's gonna suck. But the work, the work continues, you know, keep getting better, stronger, keep getting faster, you know, keep getting smarter and get back after it.
Your four walk off losses and that tests to just that bad luck on us.
Yeah, that sucks.
You know, it could be the could be the other way, you know, but we're fighting to the end.
You know.
That's what I'm really proud of about this group. You know, keep swinging, you know, regardless of the circumstances. I had a couple of close ones throughout the year. But you know, and then it like this, you know, kind of it just just tough.
It sucks.
Could be yeah, that was tough. You know, it's a it's a it's a tough play you know to execute. But could it could you know, there's there's so many things you can look at, like I had a I should have had you should have.
Had a ninety yard touchdown.
We ran a mid zone to the left, I've had a shitty block on the defensive end. Bucket should a ran you know, ninety yards for a touchdown.
That's on me.
So you know, there's so many things you know that that you know, we're gonna watch the tape and it's gonna sting. You know, we could execute it better, but you can't get it back. And that's what that's what sucks. But you gotta move you gotta move forward. So now we're gonna lick our wounds and be back ready for next year.
You've been doing off season and parts of.
This line because something you kind of pay attention to during the off season.
Who yeah, tears jerker to get me the tears. Yeah, some guys are gonna be gone to tow it goes. You know, this is a this is one of the tightest locker rooms I've been a part of. So that's gonna suck, you know, But guys are gonna go get what's there and go get go play somewhere and be successful.
You know, that's part of the business.
MM be hard to see a lot of guys go, but you know we're gonna keep guys as well, and it's gonna be Uh, it's gonna be great.
You know.
Out of respect to that team, you know, they came out though it's gonna be a four quarter football game. You know, you gotta tip your head off to 'em, you know, but tip out had off to ourselves too, and nobody in the locker room should lord lay hanging their head a little hard for a football game. And uh, they just ended up making more plays than we did. But major respect and love for every guy in his locker room. You know, they play they telor really think the turning point was, Oh, I'm not really sure. It can't pinpoint 'em. Man. You know the methodical drivers, we gonna get multified defensively, you know, we was holding them to three points. But at the same time, you know, uh, wanna get office, getting them off the field, get the offense, better field position and things like that.
But okay, you know, yeah, these.
Type of games, man, it's you know, play off football. You know, these type of games. I'm coming down to, come down to the bidder end. And they had the chance to the uh s Icey game and they did that.
Well, you saw you signing a jersey for Jadon and Daniels.
What'd you make of the Daniels you saw tonight versus Week one?
Yeah, I mean incredible football player, man, young guy.
I had a long season, you know, and each week he progressed and then show tonight.
You know they have a great football player.
You know, you know, I know the type of will he has, and I know, uh, the competitive spirit he got, and you know he gonna do continue to do great things in his league. You know he's gonna be ould say like he's shoe in the rookie of the Year and uh he gonna have many amorys, many more awards though.
So we always say, you know, we out there all we got out of each other.
You know, we got to hold each other accountable, you know, on in off the field, and uh we hang out with each other on and off the field. And you know that's just type of love you got. You know what I'm saying. You go through a lot in his locker room and you see a lot of things and.
Uh stuff like that. And you know, when you build that brotherhood, it goes a long way. And uh, we play like that for one another in the shows.
You played the last two years on one year contracts that you're.
Planning to come back.
Uh A lot to think about, man, a lot to think about. You know, i'm'a just soak this one up. You know, just go ahead, go home, you know, be my little girl, Uh be a dad, and uh go from there.
Four losses uh or walk off defeats this year around, how tougher for those, especially the way this one ended bouncing off the palling then.
Uh, you know it's tough, man, It's tough.
I didn't get a chance to see it, but you know, tough we just you know, we just gotta figure out how to you know, seal games like that and uh be on the other side of those. Uh, but can't undermine the opponum Man they they they're supposed to do.
And gotta give mother respect.
How good school.
We expect to be in a super Bowl every year. This group is special. We're a really young team. We're going to have a lot of people back, and a lot of people have this pill going into the off season. Motivation going into the off season, So get over everybody buying it and everybody just doing one percent more. I know it's cliche and everybody talks about just doing a little bit extra, but you know, if it comes down to the off season, we got to be together in the off season.
We can't just be separate.
We gotta work and stay together.
Talked about it a little bit, but you have about this game now, but realistically, how long was this one?
What you to do on this one?
As long as football is being played, it's gonna be hard to watch without thinking about, you know, what could have been or what we could have done.
And you can think about that.
All day long.
It doesn't change anything.
So it's gonna be a tough pill to swallow moving forward, But like I said, flip it turn into motivation.
Just close you guys. Season, you guys, it's.
Extremely tough just because you know how much everybody puts into this coach's front office. Players, I mean, we bled sweat and tears into this, you know, hours on hours on hours, and to go out like that, it's tough and it sucks, but got to keep our heads high. You know, life still moves on, and uh, you just got to keep moving forward.
Of the closest long room like that, I think it just goes down to the players and the leadership.
Really.
I mean, everybody is a brotherhood and it's a family type atmosphere from the top down.
And yeah, thank you.
Really what I learned is just.
The work is the work.
There's really no special sauce for us. Just you gotta work on. You said, mistakes happened.
Tristan talked about the self inflicted mistakes this team maybe having this game.
How much of a difference maker were those?
I mean, honestly, we just we just lost the game. There's really not much we can do when it came to how we lost that, man.
Jalen, we just joined you on Buccaneers radio, how much do you credit Washington for making plays, including at the end to win the game in the second half.
They obviously got in the end zone.
They made plays.
Yeah, I credit them a lot. They made plays. They made more plays than we did.
Bakers sent us on the handoff.
We didn't hear this.
If you answered it, please answer it for us. You're on the radio that he says I am to blame for that on the Jets sweep. What happened from your perspective on that play in the fourth quarter?
Just timing on the snap. You know, I don't.
I'm supposed to go full speed and it's Baker's job to time it up. So I mean, we just got to be on the same page when it comes with those handoffs.
Expectations and as a rookie coming in and there are the workers on the sea, you see your one in the NFL.
I mean, I know this is losses for on It just happened. But overall expectations versus.
What you got.
I mean, I expected to be the best from day one, but you know, the process happens, and like I said, the workers the work, so over time I was able to fully adjust to the NFL and just learn from Chris and Mike really and you know, I think I stepped up Hughes down the stretch.
And yeah, so it's just I think I played good.
Sound like there's a lot of emotions running through your mind right now. How do you handle and work through those emotions?
Just accepting and give yourself grace at the end of the day. I can't I can't control what happened an hour ago. So I just gotta pray about it and just you know, keep keep praying.
See how especially when it's a Lattimore he won a lot of those matchups.
Can you just speak to that.
That's just what Mike is.
It don't really matter who's covering Mike, He's gonna get open.
Graham, we just joined you here on Buccaneers Radio.
You may have answered this one of the controversial moments is it looked like the Reds the Commanders were in the neutral zone? Were you snapping that ball on purpose because you thought they were in the neutral zone?
I wish no, you know that was ah, you know, you know, snapped on the wrong cadence. I was trying to get a call out and just you know, I got to have better discipline there. You know, I got to be able to sit in there and get my calls out, but you know, get a call out heard. You know what I thought was the time to snap it and snap the ball.
So you know, that one's on me.
Got to be better down the stretch like that, just you know, fourth quarter of a playoff game, you gotta you gotta be able to execute moments like that.
So, uh, definitely disappointed me for that one.
But you know, like I said, just down the stretch in a playoff game like that, we as a team have got to make more plays and you know, have less errors than we did to be able to win a playoff game like that.
How much do you credit Jayden Daniels in Washington for the final drive?
Yeah?
I mean they're a great team, and you know they we gave them the opportunity to go close it out and they took advantage of it. This is the NFL, and and we we set them up and you know, they you know, they took advantage of what we gave them, and you know, so the hats off to them for doing that. But you know, it really felt like, you know, we could have closed this game out or at least put them in a position where they had to go down and score and we didn't.
And the potential for this team, I mean, you're obviously in your rookie year. Bucky Irving is a rookie. Jailer McMillan is a rookie. What is the ceiling here? What is the potential?
Yeah, I mean obviously the ceiling's high, and you know, but but honestly, right now, it's just about you know, knowing that a lot of these guys that you've become really close with aren't going to be back, so just you know, making sure you say your goodbyes and your thank you and it's a sad moment for us. We really want to thought we could make a run of this thing, and you know, just having to kind of abruptly say say buy it. You know, some guys you're gotten really close with is pretty tough. You know, we get tight knit, o line. You know, I thought coming out of college that you know, the NFL was more of a business and you know, you're not as close with your teammates as you are in college.
But you know, I was wrong.
This is a tight group and we had a lot of fun this year. And we had a lot of fun playing hard and you know, so I'm just proud of our proud of our unit, prout of the way we you know, fought and what we put on tape, and just you know, obviously, you know, you can hope that you get everyone back, but you know that's you know, not always reality. So just uh, you know, just happy to be able to have this rookie year with those guys.
Thank you for talking with us here after a tough loss. Graham, good luck.
Thanks.
Yeah, I mean we you know, we kind of you know, saw what they were doing the first half adjusted, you know, knew what runs we wanted to get up and executed on some you know, to be honest with you, overall, I thought the game as an offense was relatively clean, except you take out you know, if you take out four plays, really of you know, a mental error by someone or the cadence on my part or whatever. You know, you know, if you take out three or four plays, you know, it's a different ballgame. I thought overall we were clean, but like I said, playoffs, you know, you have a couple of air is like that you're not gonna win the game. At least you don't deserve to. So you know, that's what happened tonight, and it's it's unfortunate, but you know, a good learning moment for me, just you know, unfortunate that you know this, see this team's year is over.
You know, it's just you know, nothing we can do about it now.
It's it's just you know, it's more about you know, the appreciation and respect everyone has for each other in this building and the thank yous, and you know, just.
More of that conversation. You know, everyone's gonna break down.
The film and we'll talk about it, but you know more now.
It's it's just more.
About saying goodbye and you know we'll worry about some of that stuff later because there's nothing we.
Can do about it now.
Young Forward coming back.
Yeah, absolutely, you know I love being here in Tampa. You know, love the atmosphere, love the community, love the locker room. You know, just great people all around. And uh, you know, really really blessed that I'm I'm in Tampa. So you definitely want to continue to improve and you know, earn my right to stay here