Chuck Pagano hasn’t had a win against the Patriots since he took over as coach of the Indianapolis Colts in 2012. Same holds true for quarterback Andrew Luck since becoming the face of the franchise after Peyton Manning’s departure from Indy three years ago.

The past two seasons, the Colts have been closed out with a playoff loss to the Patriots, the most recent being an embarrassing 45-7 knockout in the AFC Championship Game in January.

The four games played against the Pats during the Pagano-Luck era have all been blowouts, with Bill Belichick’s team outscoring the Colts, 189-73.

The trend doesn’t sit well with the Colts. That’s why — with a ton of cap space at their disposal — they’ve been aggressive in free agency, signing veteran running back Frank Gore, wide receiver Andre Johnson and linebacker Trent Cole.

It’s pretty obvious, they’re dying to get the Patriots monkey off their backs.

“You know Chuck Pagano is chomping at the bit to break the Patriot curse,” NFL Network analyst Solomon Wilcots told the Herald. “I don’t really trust over-the-hill guys, but those two guys they brought in, I trust. Andre Johnson’s a proud player. Frank Gore’s got something to prove. He’s one of the toughest, most disciplined players. Those guys will make a difference.”

Pagano also has something to prove. Maybe that’s why the team hasn’t extended his contract, and he’s entering the final year of his deal as a lame duck of sorts.

Speaking with Pagano at the league meetings last week in Arizona, he didn’t deny the influence the challenge of beating the Patriots has had on the Colts’ mindset.

“To be the champs, you’ve got to beat the champs, and obviously, they’ve been a thorn in our side,” Pagano said. “They’ve got a great football team, a great owner, a great coach. They won the Super Bowl this year, and four of the last 14 years. It’s a big challenge for us.”

Pagano said getting smoked in the AFC Championship Game still eats at him, and should serve as fuel and motivation for his team going forward.

“I think everybody understands and knows . . . if I have to remind them, then something’s wrong with everybody in our building,” Pagano said. “I think you guys (in the media) have spoken enough about it, where I don’t have to speak about it. But every season’s different; every team’s different. I don’t know how the thing’s going to unfold at the end of the day. But certainly, we know we got to get better. And that’s what we’re going to try to do.”

Of course, the league investigation popularly known as Deflategate arose from that AFC Championship Game and the Colts’ complaints.

Given their role in ratting out the Patriots about the inflation levels of footballs, the Colts have risen on the rival meter. So there doesn’t appear to be a lot of fondness between the teams. And unlike the Jets, who have been rattling the Pats cages as well with the league office filing counter tampering charges on Darrelle Revis, the Colts have been winning of late.

The Colts are clearly on a mission. Whether they’ve made moves in free agency that will help take down the Patriots remains to be seen.

Their prime acquisitions are all aged in NFL years. Johnson is 33, Cole 32 and Gore 31.

Cole, with 85 1⁄2 career sacks, should help with the pass rush. Throw him in the mix with Robert Mathis and Jonathan Newsome, and maybe the Colts will make a few quarterbacks sweat more.

Gore, meanwhile, has eight 1,000-yard rushing seasons during his decade-long career. Perhaps he can take some of the burden off Luck and give the Colts some semblance of a running game.

As for Johnson, he’s the perfect complement to T.Y. Hilton as he comes aboard to replace the departed Reggie Wayne. Pagano believes the former Houston Pro Bowler has something left in the tank.

“When we looked at the tape and studied him like we do every player that we’re thinking about adding or going after, you still see a productive guy,” Pagano said. “You don’t see a huge drop-off numbers-wise, maybe touchdowns, but you still see a guy that’s more than capable of stretching the defense. Certainly somebody where our opponents can’t just line up and say, ‘Don’t worry about Andre Johnson.’ They’re still going to have to tend to him, if you will. If they choose to double (No.) 13 (Hilton) and take him out of the game, if they see him as the guy to double and take care of, we’ve got another guy on the other side, along with the rest of the guys that we have on the roster that can still stretch the defense. (Johnson is) a big, big possession guy. He makes contested catches. He can make catches in traffic. Got a big catch radius, big body. Those guys are hard to defend.”

Beyond the three veterans, the Colts also added much needed defensive line help, signing Kendall Langford. He’s got bulk at 6-foot-6, 313 pounds and should help against the run. And, as we know, Indy had a pretty tough time against the Pats in that department, giving up an average of 219 yards rushing per game in the last three meetings with the Patriots.

“We’re always trying to make the right moves, do the right things to build our roster. We want to build a program for sustained success. We’ve said that from Day 1,” Pagano said. “We’ve been able to take a positive step with each year. We took another one last year. We didn’t want the thing to end the way it ended . . . I feel like we’re moving in the right direction and we’ll continue to add the pieces we feel necessary to build our program and reach the mountain top.”

A 38-point loss to the Pats had the Colts pretty far out of reach of that mountain top. We’ll see if they now have the right pliers to get that monkey off their backs.

Bowles bets on Marshall

The Bears traded five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Brandon Marshall, a player who had 2,803 yards, 23 touchdowns and 218 receptions in his first two seasons with the club, for a measly seventh-round draft pick to the Jets, so it was fairly obvious they were unloading him due to some off-field concerns.

Jets coach Todd Bowles, however, is happy to welcome Marshall with open arms. Bowles was with the Dolphins when Marshall played there for two seasons (2010-11), a time at which the wide receiver was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.

“I think as a coach, when you have a player, especially if you have somebody that gets in any kind of trouble, you want to see the growth of the person over the years, whether you’re on their team or not,” Bowles said last week at the AFC coaches breakfast. “You want to see those guys mature and succeed. You’ve seen Brandon mature over those years and become the man he is, and I think all that stuff has helped him to become who he is today.”

Bowles believes Marshall is still a top flight receiver.

“He’s not just a big body. That’s just part of it. His presence and the way he runs routes, he understands the game. He’s a student of the game, he understands when he has small guys on him, he can get vertical when he needs to get vertical,” Bowles said. “He’s a sharp route-runner. He has great hands. He knows how to block. He brings a work ethic and he brings a fire to us that we need on that side of the ball.”

Tip has X-it plan for Vince

Speaking with Andre Tippett recently, the Hall of Famer said the past three years were special because he formed an even closer bond with Vince Wilfork, as he and the now ex-Patriot sat in the stands together watching their sons, Coby and D’Aundre, respectively, play football at Xaverian High.

Tippett, the Patriots executive director of community affairs, didn’t know what the Wilforks plan is for D’Aundre, who will be entering his senior year. He didn’t want to speak for them, but he did offer a hand.

“The first thing my wife and I texted them after he signed with Houston, was, we got a room in the house if need be,” Tippett said. “I love D’Aundre. He’s a great kid. He just keeps getting better every year. He has a nice bond there with the boys at Xaverian. And he and my son are thick as thieves, just two peas in a pod. If they want him to stay, we’ve got room.”