INDIANAPOLIS — A lot of people are surprised, perhaps even shocked, that the Indianapolis Colts will be playing in the AFC Championship game on Sunday.

While the franchise has been pretty consistent about making the playoffs since the start of the 2002 season, the Colts were coming off a disastrous 2-14 season in 2011. The team went through a massive roster change, which included saying goodbye to a number of veteran players who had meant so much to the organization in recent years.

Yet, three years later, Indianapolis has begun preparations to face the New England Patriots for the AFC title. A win and the Colts will make their third Super Bowl appearance since 2006. Pretty heady stuff for a franchise that replaced a general manager, head coach and starting quarterback as part of the retooling process.

Only five players remain on the Indianapolis roster (wide receiver Reggie Wayne, kicker Adam Vinatieri, punter Pat McAfee, outside linebacker Robert Mathis and defensive tackle Fili Moala) from their last Super Bowl squad in 2009. Mathis and Moala are both currently on injured reserve.

Head coach Chuck Pagano, though, insists that he isn’t shocked in the least that the Colts are in their current position. Far from it.

“Yeah, faith is believing in what you don’t see or can’t see, and the reward for believing is you’ll get to see it,” Pagano said this week. “We’ve got a bunch of guys in this building that believe in what we’re doing and believe in each other. If you can’t speak it into existence, it’ll never happen.”

Pagano knew that he had a challenge ahead of him when he accepted the head coaching job with Indianapolis. He had never been a head coach on any level, coming to the Colts after spending one season as the Baltimore Ravens’ defensive coordinator.

“I was looking for the head coaching manual and there wasn’t one on the desk. I remember sitting in that office for the first time with my wife and just looking at her just saying, ‘What the heck did we just do?,'” he joked.

“Shoot, the thing had just been blown up, if you will. Rookie GM, rookie head coach, rookie quarterback coming in. And a bunch of great, great, great Colts players — Ring of Honor players — gone and out the door. We knew it was a challenge in a lot of different areas. You’ve got to put a staff together. You’ve got to put a team together. You’ve got to build a culture. I’m glad we’re where we’re at right now and not starting over.”

Playing at Gillette Stadium will no doubt bring back a lot of memories for Pagano. His last game with the Ravens came in the 2011 AFC Championship game against New England. The Patriots won that game, giving the veteran assistant coach the opportunity to interview for the vacant head coaching position in Indianapolis.

Had Baltimore won that game, there’s a pretty good chance that somebody else is coaching the Colts now.

“Now, three years later, headed back to Foxboro for a chance to play for it all. Again, it’s about the game, it’s about the team, it’s about us doing our job, sticking to the process and preparing, meeting well and practicing well. Dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s,” Pagano said.

“We know how great a team we’re going to play. You’ve got a Hall of Fame coach, a Hall of Fame quarterback and a bunch of great players on both sides of the ball. It’s going to be a tall order. But we’re kind of caught up more in what we need to do on our end in preparation for this to give ourselves the best chance to go up there and win that game.”

–This is the 79th meeting between the teams. The Patriots lead the regular-season series 46-28. New England also leads the postseason series 3-1. The Colts have lost six of their previous eight meetings to New England, including a 42-20 loss on Nov. 16. The matchup on Jan. 11, 2014, was an AFC divisional playoff game at Gillette Stadium. From 2005 to 2009, Indianapolis won five of six games, including the 2006 AFC Championship game at the RCA Dome (38-34, Jan. 21, 2007). The Colts have a 2-7 record at Gillette Stadium and a 12-25 overall won-loss road record against the Patriots. Indianapolis’ last win at Gillette Stadium occurred on Nov. 5, 2006, as the Colts registered a 27-20 victory. The Colts and Patriots have played for the AFC title on two previous occasions — Jan. 18, 2004, at Gillette Stadium (Patriots won 24-14) and Jan. 21, 2007, at the RCA Dome (Colts won 38-34). New England posted a 20-3 win in an AFC divisional playoff game on Jan. 16, 2005.

–After seeing what kind of offensive formation issues the Baltimore Ravens defense had in its AFC divisional playoff game at New England last week, Colts head coach Chuck Pagano admitted that he has done a little research on the subject.

“I did some investigating and just trying to again cover all bases, if you will,” Pagano said. “I talked to some guys in Baltimore about what went down and then had a conversation with league officials and just asked how things were officiated. They did the right thing when you look up the rule, because I wanted to make sure going into our game.

“I had time to get a hold of (NFL officials supervisor) Dean Blandino and ask him what the letter of the law was, what the rule read in the book and how it’s interpreted, and those kind of things. We’ve just got to make sure that we cover all our bases and understand (New England does) a great job. They use a ton of different personnel groups and they only had four linemen in on those plays. So we have to be prepared for everything, obviously.”

–Pagano explained why RB Trent Richardson was not active for last week’s AFC divisional playoff game at Denver. His status for Sunday’s AFC Championship game at New England has not been decided.

“Just what we talked about as far as special teams go. Michael Hill was a special teams player, and not to knock on Trent, (but) Trent’s never been asked to be a special teams player,” Pagano said.

“You guys wrote about it, saw it out at practice. He was doing everything in a short period of time to try to get himself ready, but Michael was more ready to go out and be the third back and contribute on special teams.”