Foxboro, Mass. ? Bill Belichick stood on the sideline, his arms stuck in the pockets of his drenched sweat shirt and his expression serious.

Sure, the New England Patriots were seconds away from advancing to the Super Bowl. But they haven’t won it yet, and the public perception of a team without big names doesn’t concern him.

“I don’t really know what the rest of the country thinks,” he said after the Patriots beat the Indianapolis Colts, 24-14, Sunday in the AFC championship game.

If they beat the Carolina Panthers in the Super Bowl, he would be 6-0 in the playoffs since he became coach of the Patriots Jan. 27, 2000. And in his last three seasons as Patriots coach, he would be 40-14, including playoff games.

The Colts entered Sunday’s game after outscoring Denver and Kansas City, 79-41 in their first two playoff games. But against Belichick’s defense, which allowed just 36 points in the previous seven home games, they managed just two touchdowns.

And the defense was much better than it was in the Patriots’ 38-34 regular-season win in Indianapolis.

“We put in a few things this week that were kind of new and that maybe were a little bit untested,” Belichick said. “But I think the players really responded well to them.”