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INDIANAPOLIS - They couldn't come from more different backgrounds or have two more different personalities. But on Sunday, Tony Dungy and Bill Belichick will be of one mind, experience one focus and share one goal.

Only one of them will take their respective team to Super Bowl XLI. And considering how long the coaches of the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots have been battling over similar prizes, it seems only fitting that it all came down to another meeting today at the RCA Dome (6:30 p.m.; Ch. 4, 12) for the right to play for the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

"We always felt that New England is one of those championship-hardened teams that always seems to show up and always seems to get themselves there," Dungy said last week. "That's what you have to admire about them. It seems like poetic justice that we're playing these guys again. We're looking forward to it."

"It's an honor for us to be playing in the AFC Championship game against a team that we have the utmost respect for in the Indianapolis Colts," Belichick said. "They were in our division for a while. We played them twice a year. It seems like they're still in our division in the way we're playing them twice a year on a number of occasions since then. It's a team that we know well."

Dungy will speak in nothing but respectful tones about the Patriots, as would be expected of a man as highly respected as he is for his leadership and quiet dignity. But the truth of the matter is that the Patriots represent the source of his greatest frustrations, dating from the Patriots' 24-14 win in the 2003 AFC Championship Game and a 20-3 whipping in the 2004 divisional round. That sting has been mitigated slightly by two straight victories by the Colts at Gillette Stadium in the last two regular seasons, both won in dominating fashion. But that's not enough. It won't be until the victory comes on the higher stage of the playoffs.

It's best to forget the past, he added.

"We want to ignore it all," Dungy said. "I've told the team and I really believe it that none of that matters. It really is a one-game season, and what happens Sunday will determine who moves on and who goes home.

"We at one point had lost seven times in a row with those guys, and it didn't matter in the game that we had won," he said. "The fact that we have two in a row won't matter in this game. It's just that whoever plays the best on Sunday night, and try not to read anything into the last 10 games."

Belichick, a student of the NFL's history, also selectively dismisses it as far as the Colts are concerned.

"We know we've had a great history with this team, and it's gone in different cycles as to who has had the upper hand and how the games have gone and so forth and so on," Belichick said. "But to me, I don't think really any of that makes any difference. It doesn't matter what happened this year, last year in some other game or in some other situation. What it comes down to is what's going to happen Sunday afternoon - these two teams and this group of players and coaches and how it all matches up on Sunday afternoon in Indianapolis.

"I don't really care too much about what happened in the past - good, bad or indifferent. I'm a lot more focused on what we can do this week and how it's going to play itself out," he said.

Dungy's Colts are in the title game despite the fact that they had the worst run defense in the NFL this season, allowing 2,768 yards, an average of 173 yards per game. That has dropped to 63.5 per game in the playoffs, however, and that is a source of great satisfaction to the veteran coach.

"We're playing a little bit better, number one," he said. "Number two, we've been better on third down. A lot of times the difference is that they'll convert some third downs to keep drives going and get more runs."

But he knows that the Patriots have backs who can keep moving the stakes against almost any defense. "If you've got backs like (Corey) Dillon and (Laurence) Maroney, the more they run, the more of a chance they have to break them," he said. "We defended 20 runs in one game and 14 or 15 runs in the other game, as opposed to some other days were we defended 30 or 40. A lot of that is just playing better and getting off the field on third down."

Belichick also dismissed any notions that the Colts' defense is deficient.

"I think they're basically playing the same defense that they've played all year," Belichick said. "I've always thought they've been a good defensive football team, period. They're fast. They're quick. They have a good scheme. They don't give up a lot of big plays. They're playing their best football right now … which I don't think that's unusual either, to see a team playing its best football at the end of the season.

"They're a good football team," he continued. "I think they do a lot of things well in all three phases of the game. That's why they are where they are, in the AFC championship game, they have the home field and they've earned it."

Dungy has earned something else, and it can't be measured in the usual way. Of the four teams still alive in the hunt for a Super Bowl berth, two are coached by African-Americans - and, given the fact that the NFL lagged for years in promoting persons of African descent into the top jobs, that's no small feat.

"It's something that even to have that possibility, we're excited about," Dungy said of the possibility of meeting Chicago's Lovie Smith in a Super Bowl. "When I came into the league as a coach it wasn't even something that you could think about, because there were no African-American coaches. We've made a ton of progress.

"I know I was thrilled when I was younger, watching Doug Williams win the MVP of the Super Bowl and lead the Redskins," Dungy said. "That was landmark for a lot of African-Americans. I think it's going to be the same type of good feeling."

But the road to that milestone will face a formidable obstacle in a coach who is regarded as one of the brightest defensive minds in the game, and most accomplished at ferreting out another team's weakness to exploit.

Belichick has had the Colts' number in two previous playoff encounters, and Dungy knows what that entails for the third.

"Number one, they don't beat themselves," Dungy said of Belichick-coached teams. "They force you to play well to win the game. They are always in it. They feel like they're going to be in it.

"They play very smart," he said. "They don't have the same game plan every week. They attack everybody a little bit differently based on what they feel that teams strengths and weaknesses are. So you can't look at a tape and say this is how they're going to play us. They're going to play us completely different than they did San Diego and the Jets. You have to be ready to adjust."

The first few minutes of the game might dictate the outcome, Dungy added.

"Generally, what they have done in the past is get up on people early," he said. "You're fighting uphill and coming from behind. That's the biggest thing. You really can't afford to fall behind those guys early."

Or at all, Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady said.

"We know how tough they are at home," he said. "It's exciting … it's exciting because 5½ months of football games come down to 60 minutes of football. The team that is most prepared and goes out and executes the best this weekend will be the team that moves on and represents the conference.

"I know there is mutual respect on both sides," he added. "I know their players have a lot of respect for us. I know we have a lot of respect for their players and their coaches. It should be just one of those classic games."

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com