Defensive play-caller Brian Flores essentially did a mea culpa with members of the defense after last week’s Miami calamity.

Did Bill Belichick do the same? Did he take any blame for having the wrong personnel on the field?

Belichick told the media, “we have to do a better job” and, “it starts with me” with respect to the hook-and-ladder play that sunk the Patriots in the final moments of the Dolphins loss.

But while the players were open about Flores, different story with Belichick. It’s not clear if the Patriots head coach showed the kind of accountability with the players that Flores did.

I asked Devin McCourty if Belichick might have said something at one of the captain’s meetings.

“What’s talked about there never comes out,” McCourty said.

So the captains are sworn to secrecy?

“We don’t have to swear to secrecy,” McCourty said with a smile. “I just like how that sounds.”

Great.

Matthew Slater also wouldn’t budge. Ditto David Andrews. The Belichick subject was off limits.

“You have to ask Coach Belichick,” said Andrews.

McCourty claimed Belichick has never gotten the captains together for any of the major issues or dramas associated with the team, be it Spygate, Deflategate, curious Super Bowl benchings, etc.

“It’s just been football,” he said. “We meet about football. So if we meet this week, it’ll be about trying to beat the Steelers.”

The captains were expected to convene with Belichick on Friday, which is one of their usual days later in the week. It didn’t sound like McCourty, Slater, or anyone had planned on approaching the Hoodie about the decision to have Rob Gronkowski playing safety when there was little chance of Ryan Tannehill being able to heave the ball 70-plus yards on the final play of the game. Would McCourty, one of the team’s best defenders, ask Belichick why he was standing on the sidelines for the final fateful play?

“I think we all understand it is what it is,” said McCourty. “If we all demanded this (answer), then what? We can’t change what happened. We lost the game.”

McCourty, however, said something that struck a chord, and was more to the point of why the Patriots are successful, and why they’re able to get past disasters like Miami.

There’s no pointing fingers or assessing blame in the locker room, or expectation of anyone falling on the sword — Belichick included. Everyone bears responsibility.

“I don’t think anyone walked away thinking this is somebody else’s fault,” McCourty said with respect to the Miami fiasco. “I think we all walked away from last week saying we lost the game as a team, coaches, players, everyone. What I’ve always loved about here is, we can end the game on a fumble, missed tackle, interception, get beat in the endzone, and we lost as a team. It’s never been about one guy lost the game. I don’t think that will ever change. As a player, that’s something . . . guys come here from other teams and say, that’s one thing I can appreciate about being here.”

There’s no question that’s what Belichick preaches. Everything is about team. No individual is bigger than the team, and no single play or player is responsible for winning or losing. It’s a collective effort, win or lose.

“I would equate it to a family dynamic . . . It doesn’t matter who’s wrong or right, if we’re in this together, and we’re working toward the same goals, it doesn’t matter who was wrong or who was right,” said Slater, “we’re going to move forward and try to build as a result of it, and try to strengthen our relationship. In this case, we’re going to try to strengthen the character of our team and move forward.”

If everyone is buying into that philosophy, you have something. If not, there’s problems.

Perhaps that’s why some other teams aren’t as successful as Belichick’s teams, and the Patriots have won five Super Bowls over the past two decades. Other teams don’t deal with adversity as well as the Patriots have over the years.

“We’ve been fortunate not to have that be an issue here,” said Slater. “I think this kind of stuff can linger. It’s poor leadership if you feel like you need to point fingers or feel like you need to place blame.”

On Sunday night football, NBC commentator and former Patriot Rodney Harrison was critical of his former coach for having Gronk out there instead of McCourty, and using the “Hail Mary” defenders for the last second play. Even with that said, he didn’t see the need for Belichick having to answer to the players. While it was nice to have Flores step up, the head coach said enough after the game.

“Sure, it would have helped having Devin McCourty out there, but no way as a player, am I looking to scapegoat Coach Belichick,” said Harrison when reached Thursday. “No way, because let me tell you the season wouldn’t be where they’re at if it weren’t for him and all of his preparation. That’s the last thing you do is blame Coach Belichick. Hell no. As a player, you have to make the plays.”

When you subscribe to the collective approach, there were so many other plays that went awry in that game, and need to be corrected going forward. In that light, the blame pie expands.

Harrison remembered the drill from his Patriot-playing days.

“As Patriots, we never look at one specific play. We look at areas we need to improve. But the cool thing about being a Patriot, there’s so many plays we’d go back to, and think about – ‘we could have done this better, we could have done that better’ – the cool part about Belichick, is he never sits back and says it’s about one single play,” said Harrison. “He knows there’s so many other plays that can dictate different things in the game. And, as he said in the post-game press conference, there’s a lot of plays we could have been better at. But everybody wants to focus on that one play.”

Not many teams lose in the final seven seconds of a game on a hook-and-ladder, with a 6-foot-5, 265 pound tight end as the last line of defense. So it’s been a little hard to avoid during the past week.

Rifts in the Steelers room

The Men of Steel have had an interesting year, to say the least. There was Le’Veon Bell holding out all season, and his teammates raiding his locker after he didn’t report. There was Ben Roethlisberger blaming a faulty X-ray machine for not getting back into a game. Then they lost to the Raiders after their field goal kicker slipped while attempting a would-be game-tying field goal.

Head coach Mike Tomlin claims everything is fine, nothing to see here, but as they head in to play the Patriots, the Steelers have lost three straight, and who knows if they can get their act together.

“I don’t think that locker room is as cohesive as it was earlier in the year,” said Harrison. “I think they have some personality things going on with some of the leaders, and I think guys are pouting. I think there’s some real rifts.”

AFC top seed still possibility

The Patriots still have an outside shot at gaining the AFC’s top seed, thanks to the Chargers beating the Chiefs Thursday night, going for two points and getting the victory. That means, if the Pats win out, and the Chiefs lose one more game, the Pats would nab the top spot having beaten KC earlier in the year. The Chargers, of course, would also have to lose another game.

The Chiefs were up by two scores in the fourth quarter, at Arrowhead, and couldn’t close out the win. They Chargers defense made plays to stop Patrick Mahomes, while their defense continues to be a problem. They Chargers didn’t have it’s two leading backs, Melvin Gordon and Austin Ekeler, but still made key plays in the run game early against the Chiefs. With the Seahawks on deck, more trouble for them.

“You understand the game,” Chiefs running back Damien Williams told the Kansas City Star. “Keep the ball, you win the game. End of story. We just have to find a way.”

In other words, keep it away from their defense. Ouch!

The Chiefs have the Seahawks (in Seattle) and Raiders remaining. The Chargers have the Ravens and Broncos (in Denver) left. If the Patriots do their job, they’ll at least give themselves a chance.