Joe can't look at a picture of Michael Clayton right now

Well, here you have it, finally.

Michael Clayton, the Bucs’ resident blamer, explains the December collapse that sent the Bucs from first to worst. And just for good measure, Clayton proclaims this year’s Bucs are better than the 9-7 team in 2008, so he tells Vacation Man of ESPN.com

“We were 9-3 last year and had a rocky ending because the atmosphere wasn’t right,” Clayton said.” But the team we’ve put together this year is a whole lot better than last year. You know the energy is going to be in the right place because of the atmosphere. Raheem maximizes you. Raheem does a good job of maximizing everybody’s effort and we didn’t have that last year.”

And here Joe thought it was just terrible tackling and defensive line play that led to losing four straight losses to close last. Unbelievable! It was “the atmosphere” the whole time.

This blamer Clayton is the same guy who ran off to be tutored by Jerry Rice this offseason. Maybe — and it’s a big maybe — Clayton can get past his four seasons of dropped passes and overall disappointment. But it’s becoming clear he doesn’t have the mindset of a champion.

 Joe can guarantee that whatever negatives befall the Bucs and Clayton this season they surely won’t be Clayton’s fault.