There has never been anything like it: Only four of the 16 AFC teams have been eliminated entering the final week of the regular season.

Look more closely, however, and the playoff picture is less muddled.

League officials were working with the Elias Sport Bureau for most of the day Monday just to come up with scenarios for the nine AFC teams vying for the three remaining playoff berths.

“We know we still have a mathematical chance to be in the playoffs, and if you really look into it, it’s probably very legitimate,” said Mike Shanahan, coach of the Denver Broncos (8-7). “But you still don’t know.”

Break the scenarios down to their most basic form, and this emerges:

• Oakland and Tennessee are the champions of the AFC West and South, respectively, and are the front-runners for the top two seeds and first-round byes.
• Pittsburgh became the third AFC team to make the playoffs by beating Tampa Bay 17-7 Monday night to clinch the North.
• The Dolphins can win the East with a victory in New England on Sunday. If they lose, the Patriots win the division if the Jets lose at home to Green Bay. If the Patriots and Jets win, the Jets win the three-way tie for the East.
• Indianapolis needs only to beat fading Jacksonville at home, and it clinches one wild-card spot.

That leaves a second wild-card berth to everyone else: the East losers, Cleveland, San Diego, Kansas City and Denver. Even Baltimore (7-8) remained alive, hoping for the most unlikely of scenarios, a seven-way tie at 8-8.

The relevant comment comes from an NFC coach, Jim Fassel of the Giants, whose team improbably moved into position for a playoff berth Sunday by beating the Colts, while the Saints were beaten by the Bengals.

“Everyone seemed to bury us a long time ago,” Fassel said. “That’s one thing about this league: Don’t count yourself in or out for quite a while.”

In the NFC, only the two wild-card spots are up for grabs.

The most intriguing race in the conference might be for home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, particularly for Tampa Bay, which took a step backward Monday night by losing at home to Pittsburgh. That is likely to force the Bucs to go to Philadelphia, where they’ve been knocked out the last two seasons, or to Green Bay.

The Eagles (12-3) lead the race for home-field advantage, but they have a tough game next Saturday at the Giants, who have been playing as well as any team in the league (81 points in two games) and have a playoff spot to gain with a win.

Green Bay (12-3) is second, and the Bucs (11-4) dropped to third.

San Francisco (10-5) is fourth and will host a wild-card game in two weeks. Atlanta (9-5-1), the Giants (9-6) and fading New Orleans (9-6) are vying for the two remaining playoff spots. The Giants and Falcons (at Cleveland) can clinch with victories.

“We shouldn’t even have gotten to this point, where we have to watch and see who loses,” wide receiver Joe Horn said after the Saints lost their third straight.

Left tackle Kyle Turley added: “Everything was in our court today, but we were the ‘Aints’ and they weren’t the Bungles.”

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A perfect 158.3? Kerry Collins was perfect Sunday for the Giants against Indianapolis, at least according to the formula for passer rating. He was 23-of-29 for 366 yards and four touchdowns, putting his rating at 158.3, the highest it can be.

According to the NFL, the only other quarterback to pitch a perfect game this season was the quarterback Collins beat Sunday, the Colts’ Peyton Manning. He did it Nov. 10 in a 35-13 win in Philadelphia when he was 18-of-23 for 319 yards and three TDs.

Since 1972, there have been just 22 such perfect games. They are based on a minimum of 15 attempts in a game.