FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — No ho-hum here, not in Foxborough where the New England Patriots are preparing for their fourth straight AFC Championship Game and ninth since 2001.

It may be a common occurrence for New England to be among the NFL’s final four teams each season, but it’s not treated as commonplace inside the walls of Gillette Stadium.

“It’s always a pleasure and an honor to be playing in this game,” nose tackle Vince Wilfork said. “We don’t take anything for granted. Winning is hard.”

Quarterback Tom Brady said, “We’re very fortunate to be in this position, to have a chance to play in it. I think, more so than anything, you’re just excited for the opportunity to be able to do it. It’s hard to do and our team found a way to get there this year, so hopefully we can take advantage of the opportunity.”

While New England is used to these weeks of preparation for a game that brings either the end of the season or a trip to the Super Bowl, the Indianapolis Colts are where Brady and the Patriots were more than a decade ago, when they went to Pittsburgh to take on a heavily favored Steelers squad in the AFC title game during the 2001 season.

While Brady may have more than a decade of experience and nearly 30 playoff starts to fall back on — he became the all-time leader in postseason touchdown passes with his 46th Saturday against the Baltimore Ravens — that doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel the anticipation of this big week.

“I think that’s where a lot of the nerves come into play, the anxiousness of just the anticipation of what’s going to happen vs. what we’ve prepared for, so you just have to prepare for a lot of things,” Brady said. “I think that’s part of playing sports. Being in a competitive situation like we are, I don’t think that ever goes away. You never know what’s going to happen on game day; you work as hard as you can to kind of prepare for everything and, like I said, to be physically and mentally right. But no one can predict what’s going to happen.”

That process throughout the preparation week, that anxiety and uncertainty doesn’t just include Brady’s work day at Gillette, it seeps into his home life.

“My wife asks, ‘What’s your problem?’ But I get pretty edgy,” Brady said. “I just think there’s a high level of pressure every week. … I’d say it’s like watching the games on Sunday. You watch the first game, like the Cowboys-Packers game, and it’s kind of fun and you get to watch the game. And then all of a sudden, you watch the (Broncos and Colts) play; and, as soon as that game ends, it’s like, ‘Boom,’ and the clock starts. It’s a race to see who can prepare the best over the course of the week.

“There’s not many opportunities you get during the season to have a time where you don’t know who your opponent is. … You have that little moment of time where you’re not really preparing for anybody and then, as soon as you know the opponent, the anxiousness starts building and building.

“You do everything you can through the preparation to get an understanding of what the team is doing and how you’re going to play and which plays you’re going to install and how you’re going to run the plays … and all of those things lessen your anxiety because you can go out and perform and build confidence in what you’re doing. It’s kind of the ebbs and flows of the week. Sometimes in a good mood, sometimes in a (bad) mood. Sometimes it just ebbs and flows.”

And much like the Patriots follow Brady’s lead on the field, where the quarterback can be as excitable as any player, Wilfork says the team feeds off No. 12 all the time.

“I think a lot of the things he does he doesn’t realize how it affects everyone around him,” Wilfork said. “He doesn’t have to say much. When he’s here in this building, he’s working. When he’s home, he’s working. A lot of the guys don’t understand that. That’s the type of person that he is. He’s going to give you everything he has. I mean, I don’t care how he’s feeling — mentally or physically — but he’s going to put his best on that field and you have to love that. You have to respect that. And that’s what I love and respect about Tom.”

The Patriots have been here before. Brady has been here before — leaving AFC title games both in success and failure.

The Colts, under coach Chuck Pagano and quarterback Andrew Luck, are newcomers to this game.

But that doesn’t matter. Experience goes out the door, on some level, after the opening kickoff. Then it’s about throws, blocks, tackles and catches. It’s about execution and the better team that night.

Brady knows that. It’s why he’ll stress out all week preparing, leading his team into that same preparation.

Belichick knows all that matters is what the two teams do for three hours or so after Sunday night’s 6:40 p.m. ET kickoff.

“It’s obvious,” Belichick responded when asked what he’s learned from eight previous trips to the title game with the Patriots. “You need to play well at this time. Every team is good. The Colts are a great team. We’re going to have to play our best game. That’s what I’ve learned. But right now, I don’t really care about any of the other games — last week, last year, 10 years ago, whatever it was. All our focus is on the Colts, and we’ve got to do a good job with our preparation for Indianapolis. We’ve got to execute well and we’ve got to coach well and we’ve got to play well. That’s our challenge.”

SERIES HISTORY: 79th meeting, including postseason. The Patriots lead 49-29, including 3-1 in playoff matchups. New England and Indianapolis have met four times in the postseason since 2003. The most recent playoff battle came in the divisional round last January at Gillette Stadium, where LeGarrette Blount ran over the Colts to the tune of 166 yards and four scores in a 43-22 blowout. The Patriots also blew out the Colts 42-20 earlier this season in Indy.

NOTES: Rookie C Bryan Stork, who started 11 of 13 games this season, suffered a knee injury against the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday, and his status is unknown. He did not practice Wednesday. … CB Brandon Browner was limited in practice with a knee injury.