New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has played down his rivalry with Peyton Manning and has insisted that his side's match against the Denver Broncos will be decided by which team perform better on the day.

Brady and Manning are to clash for the 15th time in their careers, with the Patriots' man holding a 10-4 record in the head-to-head following his side's win earlier this season.

"This game is going to come down to who plays the best," Brady told WEEI. "And we'll be able to take some things that we did when we played and study them and prepare for them, but we'll have different things to do, they'll have different things to do.

"Their team is different than when they played us, and we're pretty different than when we played them."

The Patriots will be playing their first away playoff game in seven years when they travel to Sports Authority Field on Sunday.