NFL Race Is as Planned: Mad Dash : Football: With three weeks to go, only five teams have been eliminated from the playoffs.

The NFL is getting just what it wanted when it expanded the playoff system to 12 teams. With three weeks to go:

* Only five teams have been officially eliminated--Atlanta, New England, the New York Jets, Cleveland and Denver, the latter two the principals in last season’s AFC title game.

* Five teams have clinched berths--San Francisco, Chicago, the New York Giants, Buffalo and Miami. The first three are division winners, the others at least wild cards.

* Four playoff teams will come from one division--the Giants, Eagles, Redskins and Cowboys from the NFC East. Dallas, 1-15 last season, got back in the running on Sunday by being idle while Green Bay, Minnesota, Philadelphia and the Rams all lost.

* A team may make the playoffs at .500 or worse, just like in those prototypes of playoff mediocrity, the NHL and NBA.

* Five teams are 7-6 and five more are 6-7. All can make or miss the playoffs.

AFC--The East comes down to the Buffalo-Miami game in two weeks. If Miami (10-3) wins, it holds the tiebreaker over the Bills (11-2) because of a 30-7 victory over Buffalo earlier in the season.

The biggest muddle is in the Central, where Cincinnati, Houston and Pittsburgh are tied at 7-6.

Cincinnati has the best tiebreaker position with a 3-1 division record and two wins over the Steelers.

But the Oilers have three division games left--Cleveland and Houston at home, Cincinnati away and could win by sweeping.

Pittsburgh, which is at Houston and New Orleans and home to Cleveland, can probably get a wild card by winning two of three.

Kansas City (9-4) leads the West over the Raiders (8-4 going into tonight’s game in Detroit). The Chiefs hold the tiebreaker with their two wins over Los Angeles.

NFC--Things are smooth at the top, where the Giants (East), Bears (Central) and 49ers (West) have clinched division titles.

Barring upsets, San Francisco (12-1) will have the home-field advantage throughout the playoffs; New York (11-2) will get a week off, then play at home and Chicago (10-3) will have to play a wild-card game, the consequence of its 10-9 loss in Washington Sunday. The Giants also hold a tiebreaker advantage.

Washington (8-5) is in good shape for a wild card and Philadelphia (7-6) should get the second, although they’re inconsistent enough to blow it.

Then come Green Bay, Minnesota, Dallas and New Orleans, all at 6-7. Green Bay could confuse things more with an upset of the Eagles in Philadelphia on Sunday.

The Rams (5-8) are barely alive.