The top four teams in last week’s Hookscenter Power Poll all held their positions after wins last weekend. New England, Indianapolis, and Green Bay cruised to easy victories while Dallas was handed an early Christmas gift from the Lions as they rallied to win, 28-27, in Detroit.

The National Football League is usually very exciting in the month of December but this season is different. Heading into week 15 of the league, ten of the twelve playoff spots are pretty much spoken for. That leaves each conference with one playoff spot to be decided in the next three weeks.

The only divisional race left to be decided is the AFC North where the Steelers (9-4) lead the Browns (8-4) by one game. Pittsburgh holds the tiebreaker with Cleveland as they swept the season. The Steelers can wrap the AFC North up with a win at home against Jacksonville combined with a Cleveland loss at home to the Bills.

New England, Dallas, Green Bay, and Seattle have all clinched their respective divisions. Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, and Tampa Bay will win their divisions this weekend, and San Diego will claim the last divisional title next weekend.

The playoffs could start tomorrow and the field would almost be exactly the same as its going to be come the first weekend in January.

Let’s start with the AFC. The Patriots will have the top seed, the Colts the second. They get byes. That means barring major changes, the first week will have the Steelers and the Chargers playing home games. Either the Jaguars or Browns will play in San Diego, and the other, or even Buffalo, will play in Pittsburgh.

The NFC isn’t much different. The Cowboys and Packers will get first-week byes. That leaves the Seahawks and the Bucs to likely host first-round playoff games. The fourth seed will play host to the Giants, the third will play host to the team that sneaks in as the sixth seed. That team will come from a group consisting of Minnesota and a handful of others, with the Vikings having the inside track.

What happened to great division races being decided on the final week? What happened to parity, where all fans had hope with three weeks left?

Here’s what happened: There are four dominant teams, eight others that are good and the rest aren’t.

That makes for a top-heavy league and top-heavy Hookscenter Power Poll. The top four teams are the elite of the rankings. We have New England, Dallas, Indianapolis and Green Bay.

On paper, it appears those four will be the four teams in the conference championship games in just over a month.

What has given us any indication that it won’t be that way?

Most years, there is a team that makes a surprise playoff run. But it sure doesn’t look that way this year. Then again, we know better than to try and think we can predict the playoffs already.

But you do have to admit that the only drama of the final three weeks is New England’s greatness, Miami’s ineptness and two playoff spots.

January can’t get here soon enough. Even that looks predictable because of the Big Four.

So much for important December games. The two hottest things going are whether the New England Patriots will go undefeated and whether the Miami Dolphins will go winless. 

1. New England (13-0), 2. Dallas (12-1), 3. Indianapolis (11-2), 4. Green Bay (11-2), 5. Pittsburgh (9-4), 6. Jacksonville (9-4), 7. Seattle (9-4), 8. New York Giants (9-4), 9. Tampa Bay (8-5),  10. Cleveland (8-5), 11. San Diego (8-5), 12. Minnesota (7-6), 13. Buffalo (7-6), 14. Tennessee (7-6), 15. Arizona (6-7), 16. Detroit (6-7), 17. Washington (6-7), 18. Denver (6-7), 19. New Orleans (6-7), 20. Houston (6-7), 21. Philadelphia (5-8), 22. Chicago (5-8), 23. Cincinnati (5-8), 24. Carolina (5-8), 25. Baltimore (4-9), 26. Kansas City (4-9), 27. Oakland (4-9), 28. St. Louis (3-10), 29. Atlanta (3-10), 30. San Francisco (3-10), 31. New York Jets (3-10), 32. Miami (0-13).