FOXBORO — Kansas City seems like a long time ago, doesn’t it?

You remember Kansas City, don’t you? It was the end of the road, one of decline for your quarterback and your coach and your franchise.

While this trip to the Super Bowl isn’t as fluky or unexpected as the first one for Bill Belichick, Tom Brady & Co., for a while back in late September and October many people abandoned ship on the “Patriots Dynasty.”

The Patriots’ ship, after last night’s 45-7 thrashing of the over-matched Indianapolis Colts, is fuller than ever and it’s headed to west to the desert sun.

Unlike the early game Sunday, there was no drama. Only a few uncomfortable moments (see Brady interception).

So there will be a return trip to Glendale, Ariz., for a Feb. 1 game against the Seattle Seahawks. But doubters and emails started rolling in after that Week 4 Monday night in Kansas City, a devastating 41-14 loss. The Pats dropped to 2-2 and that’s what they looked like … a .500 team.

Here was a memorable one I saved for just this moment:

“It’s 4 games in the books or 25 percent of the season gone … Brady is done. Don’t want to hear about the offensive line. Roll him out. He can’t move … Right now Brady to Oakland for their top offensive and defensive players and two No. 1 picks. Time to rebuild.”

There was a jab about the defense, too. And so on.

While a tad strong, that email was more the rule than the exception around here when full-fledged doubt crept into the Belichick-Brady Era like never before.

But here we are, only 3 1/2 months later, and we’re talking about the 2014 Patriots as possibly, and I mean possibly, one of the franchise’s all-time best. It’s on to Super Bowl XLIX.

Sure, New Englanders have enjoyed the ride, but they not only expect it, they take it for granted.

In 13 days, the Patriots will play in their sixth Super Bowl in 14 seasons.

No other franchise has accomplished that feat. In fact, this is their eighth trip to the Super Bowl, tying Dallas and Pittsburgh as all-time best.

In this Super Bowl run, the AFC football gods got this one backwards. They gave the Patriots the scare in the “gimme” game last Saturday night against the Ravens, 35-31, and brought in first-round fodder for the “title” game.

The defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks are another animal altogether. Belichick will have his work cut out for that team, which takes toughness to levels you don’t see every season.

But that’s another story for another day.

The Patriots not only aren’t dead yet, they are on the precipice of doing something historic, something they’ve tried and failed at twice over the last seven years, winning that fourth, very, very elusive Super Bowl with the same coach and quarterback over 13 years.

“Jim,” said Patriots coach Belichick to CBS play-by-play man, Jim Nantz, after the win, “I have only one thing to say: We’re on to Seattle.”

Enjoy the ride to Arizona. And a chance to deal with some interesting history.