We are desperate to know everything right away, but we cannot. We want to know from one victory -- one as impressive as the Dolphins' was here Sunday -- that Miami can still be a playoff team this season. We want to know from one start -- the first of quarterback Chad Henne's budding NFL career -- that Miami has discovered its long-term solution at that most important position.

No definitive answers came Sunday, but this did:

Hope, double-barreled.

That will do for now.

Hope that this slow-starting season might not be lost arrived in the thorough 38-10 swamping of the Buffalo Bills.

And so did the hope that the symbolic start of what we optimistically call the ``Henne era'' might be the start of something very good, indeed.

The latter is more important than the former, because what becomes of the rest of this season is not as big to the franchise as what becomes of Henne, how good or great he might be.

HENNE OR BUST

One of the hand-drawn signs waving in the Sunday's crowd read, ``In Henne We Trust.''

That's what the balance of this season is about now, when you cut to the bone.

Is he the guys you trust with the keys? The guy you want steering and driving?

He looked the part Sunday.

It wasn't all pretty or perfect for the second-year pro. It wasn't the individual performance that made you cast the memory back to Dan Marino in 1983. Henne, 24, absorbed six sacks, some via his own hesitation. He fumbled twice (though lost neither). He passed for a modest 115 yards.

There were signs, though. Tony Sparano didn't require a final stat sheet or a Monday film review to see them.

``I loved his look during the game. It was tremendous,'' said the head coach after the victory that made his team 1-3 heading into next Monday's home test vs. the rival Jets. ``He really communicated clearly, very well on the sideline, very good with receivers, excellent with [QBs coach] David Lee. He had a really good grasp of what [the Bills] were doing to him. It was validating what I knew about him.''

Henne withstood the havoc in the pocket without throwing an interception. Twice he darted from the maelstrom and ran for 14 yards.

His first career touchdown pass, a 5-yarder to rookie Brian Hartline, came in the middle of the third quarter and gave Miami the first lead that felt safe, at 24-3. It was hardly highlight-reel or SportsCenter stuff. Just a play that two young men will never forget, that's all.

So who kept the keepsake ball?

``I kept it,'' Hartline said with a grin. ``I got first dibs on it, so I am sorry to say.''

``I'll give it to Brian,'' said Henne, diplomatically. ``Hopefully the two of us will have a lot more of those together.'' Then his smile broadened. ``Of course it figures,'' he added, ``that an Ohio State guy takes it from a Michigan guy!''

Everything is all lightness and laughter after a division win at home that happens to be your first of the year. A win such as this is medicinal.

For the Dolphins and their new quarterback, though, it will rarely again be as easy as it looked or was on Sunday.

The Bills were by far the worst team Miami has faced, and a scan of the schedule shows few others as soft other than maybe Tampa Bay.

``It was all a burden taken off my shoulders,'' Henne described the way his maiden start played out -- a game he dedicated to injured Chad Pennington, his generous mentor.

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