CCHARLOTTE, N.C. -- There was an eye-popping moment during the Dolphins game Thursday night when Miami's offense deployed in a five-wide receiver alignment, a look that typically suggests pass-happy, wide-open, light-the-scoreboard football.

But before you have flashbacks to the mid-1980s and the uniformed ghosts of Nat Moore, Mark Clayton, Mark Duper, Tony Nathan and Bruce Hardy dance among your thoughts, realize this somber fact:

Miami's five-wide look during their 24-17 victory against Carolina was hardly fanciful. It was manned by Joey Haynos, Kory Sperry, Ricky Williams, Ted Ginn Jr. and Davone Bess.

No disrespect against those players. They all have their unique gifts. But none are threatening to extend their Miami season with a Miami Pro Bowl appearance, if you know what I mean.

So now the big questions that today hover over the Dolphins like a brewing storm cloud will remain the rest of this season. And those questions are as fundamental as they are troubling.

Where will the offense come from?

Where will the points come from?

The answer against Carolina came in the person of Williams. The man who led the Dolphins with a team record 1,853-yard season in 2002 is back at it again because Ronnie Brown is having foot surgery Friday and is done for the season.

Williams showed he still has some of the old juice left in the old legs, gaining 119 yards on 22 carries and scoring three times.

And the 32-year-old showed some new tricks as he rushed for at least one touchdown and caught a touchdown pass in the same game for the first time in his career.

So Williams was the focus of the Miami offense against Carolina as surely as he will be the offensive alpha and omega the rest of this season. Simply, that's the way it must be.

But he cannot be expected to do it alone. He couldn't carry the Dolphins to the playoffs in his prime, and it's unfair to expect him to do it now.

So where will the help come from?

The pickings looked slim for a time Thursday. The Dolphins didn't have Brown, didn't have Patrick Cobbs, didn't have Chad Pennington, didn't have David Martin and were nursing hobbled guard Justin Smiley, keeping him in reserve but active despite a seemingly chronic bad shoulder.

To add to the difficulties, starting center Jake Grove left the game with an ankle injury and then backup center Joe Berger left the game with another injury.

No problem, right?

The Dolphins simply moved Nate Garner from left guard to center, asked Smiley to play hurt and proceeded to keep running Williams.

When Garner went down in the fourth quarter, the Dolphins limped Berger back in the game and, you guessed it, kept running Williams.

But the Dolphins offense will need to be more than that the rest of this season.

And maybe this victory showed us a bit of what exactly it might be.

The Miami offense this night was one in which Chad Henne, making only his seventh start, outplayed 11-year veteran Jake Delhomme.

No, Henne didn't become Miami's first 300-yard passer of the year. But his 14-yard scoring pass was a thing of beauty. His 8-yard completion to Bess on third-and-6 in the second quarter extended another touchdown drive.

And another 15-yard pass to Bess on third-and-12 kept Miami's final touchdown drive alive as well.

Henne played winning football against the Panthers.

He was not alone.

Bess had six receptions, including one diving grab that brought moans from the Carolina crowd in the first half. In the second half he had the 15-yarder that set up the dagger that was Williams' 46-yard score.

Bess is not big, but in this game he came up huge. All he has to do is repeat it time and again the rest of the season.

It was an improbable performance for the undermanned but not overmatched Miami offense. Offensive coordinator Dan Henning saw holes in the Carolina defense and picked at them like scabs.

He saw a terrible run defense and exploited it time after time after time, insisting on even when it wasn't working and seemed like the wrong strategy. For the elder statesman of the Miami coaching staff, this game must have offered sweet revenge.

Fired as Carolina's offensive coordinator years ago, Henning did great work while Carolina offensive coordinator Jeff Davidson made curious choices.

In a game Carolina running back DeAngelo Williams shredded the Miami defense, Davidson continually called passes. In a game that backup nose tackle Paul Soliai missed and starting nose tackle Jason Ferguson got hurt in the final period, the Panthers still tried to pass.

Strange. And fortunate for Miami because it didn't force the Dolphins to put more points on the board.

Whatever helps the offense. The Dolphins will take it.