FOXBORO — With 27 seconds left in the first half of last weekend’s AFC Championship Game, Tom Brady threw a perfect pass to receiver Phillip Dorsett for a 29-yard touchdown. When the quarterback returned to the sideline, he took a seat on the heated bench.

Quickly, he was approached by receiver Julian Edelman, who also happened to be heated.

"Nice [expletive] ball," Edelman screamed in Brady's face. "You're too [expletive] old! You're too old!"

The Patriots were in the middle of a playoff battle and Edelman, who was wearing a microphone, felt the need to remind Brady of all the doubt he faced this past season. The scene was shown on Showtime's "Inside the NFL." Then as the game ended and the Patriots had defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, Brady could be seen, via the team’s live feed, discussing what critics had been saying about him and his teammates.

“Just remember, you're too old,” receiver Chris Hogan told Brady.

“I’m too old; you’re too slow,” Brady responded. “We’ve got no skill players. We’ve got no defense. We’ve got nothing.”

Outside of New England, people will collectively roll their eyes when the Patriots say they’re underdogs. They’ll laugh when the Patriots look to the critics for motivation, but the truth is, that’s the Patriots' way. As they now prepare for Super Bowl LIII, this isn’t the first time they’ve used outside noise to give them an extra push. It’s been a staple of this organization over the last five seasons.

“Anytime you get to a moment like that, a championship game, I don’t want to say a lot of people counted us out, but going on the road in a tough environment and a very good team definitely was a big challenge for us,” Hogan said. “I think a great thing about this team is we really believe in each other. With any of that kind of [outside noise], we just use it as extra motivation — want to play harder for each other, want to play harder for this team and just do anything and everything we can to help this team get a win whenever we’re playing.”

The team had plenty of fodder to motivate it. Players heard about how bad they were on the road. Brady heard about ESPN's Max Kellerman, who said the 41-year-old was falling off a cliff. The team heard about Brady’s lack of weapons, especially after troubled receiver Josh Gordon was suspended indefinitely. They heard about Rob Gronkowski losing a step. The list goes on.

We've seen this before. Go back to 2014 and that Patriots squad used negative critiques of the team as a push throughout the entire year. It started with Kansas City in Week 4. Following the 41-14 loss to the Chiefs, the Patriots were 2-2 and people wondered if Brady was in decline. Some suggested the Patriots bench Brady in favor of backup Jimmy Garoppolo. Then coach Bill Belichick had his “on to Cincinnati” press conference, which served as a rallying cry for the team. After a 43-17 win over the Bengals the following week, Gronk blasted the media.

What people didn’t know was that all week long, the players were shown headlines from the media following that blowout loss to the Chiefs. They continued that theme throughout the season en route to Super Bowl XLIX.

Prior to the team's Week 12 win against Detroit that season, defensive backs hung up NFL team stats and highlighted the Lions, who were then ranked above them. In Week 15, quotes from Dolphins players saying they should’ve beaten the Pats by 50, in Week 1, appeared on TV screens throughout the practice facility.

In 2016, the motivation was simple — rally behind Brady. That season, the quarterback was suspended for four games following Deflategate. The team banded behind their leader en route to Super Bowl LI.

It’s the same way this season.

“It goes to show you how much everyone cares,” Hogan said. “There are no individuals in this locker room. We want to play for one another. We want to win for one another and we want to play our best football for one another. I think when you go down the line, everyone will say the same thing.”