ATLANTA -- The Patriots have been here before -- plenty of times -- yet the storyline is somehow about how this team, led by the greatest coach in history, who happens to have the greatest quarterback in history, has been overlooked. That seems impossible until you remember that the Pats, for all the talk about blocking out the noise, very much thrive on the underdog premise, even if it isn't based in reality.

Tom Brady doesn't hide behind this; he's still bitter, 18 years later, that he was a sixth-round pick. He takes it personally when critics wonder about his arm strength, or his age. Any slight, no matter how innocuous, is taken as a personal affront by Brady, and by extension, the Patriots. This has been going on for most of this century, long before New England was considered a dynasty but well after they were established as regularly one of the NFL's best teams.

"We have a permanent chip on our shoulder," linebacker Tedy Bruschi said in Jan. 2005 (via the Chicago Tribune, days before New England faced Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship Game.

The Pats would cruise to a 41-27 win over rookie Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers, and two weeks later, they would outlast Donovan McNabb and the Eagles to put the finishing touches on a 17-2 season. New England had won back-to-back Super Bowls and three of the last four. And yet the "Us against the world" mentality was only reinforced.

"We took it personally when everybody talked about us, the Michael Irvins (of ESPN) of the league," safety Rodney Harrison said in Jan. 2005. "I've been back there all season with these guys. We have had to struggle at times and really maneuver and try to manipulate the system a little bit because it just has been tough with so many different guys back there."

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To be clear: From the 2001 season, when Brady took replaced Drew Bledsoe, until the 2004 season, the Patriots went 48-16 -- including 14-2 marks in '03 and '04 -- and brought the title back to Foxborough three times.

Fourteen years later, the Patriots are set to face the Rams as 2.5-point favorites in Super Bowl LIII, which you can stream right here on CBSSports.com. But not a lot has changed.

Before the AFC Championship Game against the Chiefs, Brady proclaimed, "I know everyone thinks we suck and can't win any games, so we'll see." This is where we point out that it was New England's eighth straight AFC title game appearance, and when it was all said and done in Kansas City, the Pats were headed to their ninth Super Bowl.

Tight end Rob Gronkowski acknowledged this week that finding motivation is nothing new for this team.

"We know that there's a lot been said about us this year, and we've been embracing it I would say a little bit more than usual," he said during Super Bowl LIII Opening Night. "But we're not letting it distract us. We're just embracing it to take it in and bring it out in good energy."

There's an ancillary benefit to this too.

"It actually is a fun part about it," Gronkowski continued. "You know, you get to laugh at the other player that gets made fun of, and then you get to say the comments to him too, like 'Tom has a noodle arm.' We've heard that one before, and then all practice we're telling Tom he has a noodle arm. But we're just doing it all for laughs and fun, because we know he doesn't have a noodle arm, and we know he's legit and his arm is as strong as ever."

And this brings us to Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman, who is best known as "that guy who steamrolled Saints wideout TommyLee Lewis and everybody on the planet saw it except the seven officials on the field in New Orleans." But this week, Robey-Coleman is also known as "that guy who gently prodded Tom Brady, who will undoubtedly use it as inspiration in the days leading up to Super Bowl LIII."

"For [Brady] to still be doing it, that's a great compliment for him. But I think that he's definitely not the same quarterback he was," Robey-Coleman told Bleacher Report's Tyler Dunne.

"[Brady] still can sling it, but he's not slinging it as much. Whatever he was doing -- because of his age and all that -- he's not doing as much of that anymore. He's still doing the same things; he's just not doing as much of it. And sometimes, it's not the sharpest. But it still gets done."

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Again, these remarks hardly qualify as bulletin-board material and a reasonable person might be convinced that, yeah, 41-year-old Brady isn't physically the same player he was seven or eight years ago. But there's no way Brady isn't viewing them that way.

Brady's mouth may say, "I have nothing to add," but that face screams, "I WILL DESTROY YOU."

We know this because we've seen it before. It's been 11 years since Steelers safety Anthony Smith promised a late-season win -- with qualification, though no one in the Pats' locker room was interested in what else he had to say. And the manner in which Brady exploited him -- all game -- left an indelible image that should trouble Robey-Coleman and the Rams.

Ahead of the 9-3 Steelers facing the 12-0 Patriots, Smith thought it would be a good idea to say this: "Yeah, I can guarantee a win." Of course, he qualified by adding, "As long as we come out and do what we got to do." But no one cared about those 13 words because, well, this dude had just guaranteed a win against the high-powered Patriots, the same outfit that would finish the regular season undefeated.

There really isn't much there, but that's not the point. Which helps explain Brady trash-talking Smith after burning him for a touchdown.

"I don't care to repeat what I said, especially if my mother reads it," Brady said at the time. "She wouldn't be very happy."

Belichick had some thoughts as well: "We've played against a lot better safeties than him, I'll tell you."

When it was over, the Patriots had 399 passing yards and four touchdowns, and Smith had been exposed as a liability in the secondary.

"It was obvious that they didn't care about running the ball," Pittsburgh cornerback Ike Taylor said after the game. "Not at all. They were in attack mode all the way. The only thing we can do is keep playing hard and hope we get another shot at them. Hopefully, if we get that chance, we'll do things a lot differently."

The good news is that Robey-Coleman ain't Anthony Smith. Pro Football Focus graded him as the sixth-best cornerback in 2018, just behind Patrick Peterson and ahead of teammates Aqib Talib (18th) and Marcus Peters (95th). The bad news is that Tom Brady cares not about such things.

"I think we've told [Robey-Coleman] not to say anything else," Rams general manager Les Snead said Monday.

It may already be too late.

Prediction: Patriots 34, Rams 24
Pick: Patriots -2.5