As reporters and camera crews crowded closer, rookie Stewart asked three-year veteran Williams for some lotion to rub on his weathered hands and arms before turning around to meet the press. Williams raised his eyebrows and started firing on all cylinders, ripping Stewart for his inattention to financial detail, right down to the precise price of his lotion, $1.99.

"You know what that is per ounce?" said Williams, who could make $1.4 million this season, including bonuses. "It's like 50 cents per ounce. With the economy like it is today, that's a lot."

Some reporters giggled, and so did Stewart.

"I got these people laughing," Williams said, nodding over his right shoulder, "but I'm serious."

How quaint. These powerful, comical Panthers ran for 301 yards and four touchdowns during the 38-23 victory, lighting up living rooms across America with their astonishing compatibility, especially during their four-rushes-only drive that devoured 90 yards and produced a 31-17 lead. Then, the tandem that Williams sometimes calls "Smash & Dash" celebrated midnight with a household spat over skin lotion.

The Panthers obviously hope that outsiders remember the silly asides and periodic lapses, such as the 40-yard rushing effort during the 27-3 flop at Tampa Bay two months ago. That's not likely. In the most popular sport of a short-attention-span society, what happened last makes the biggest noise.

This was the biggest noise since Plaxico Burress' gun went off in a Manhattan nightclub, grazing the New York Giants' temporary aura of NFC invincibility and foreshadowing a stumble against Philadelphia.

Largely because Williams (186 yards) and Stewart (115) became only the sixth teammates to pass 100 yards each in the same game since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, Carolina (10-3) now qualifies as the hotter horse in a two-team race for home-field advantage throughout the conference playoffs. By winning its final three games, Carolina - or North Carolina, in Coach Jon Gruden's words - would clinch the top seed.

Media marvels concluded, quite typically, that the Panthers sent a statement to the Giants, the rest of the league and the whole recession-riddled planet. Or did they?

"We really weren't trying to make any statement," Williams said.

One of his lead blockers, 305-pound tackle Jordan Gross, disputed the finality of the one-game advantage over Tampa Bay in the NFC South. Carolina will encounter playoff-bound Denver at 4:15 p.m. Sunday before closing out on the road against the Giants and Saints.

The Bucs could sneak back into the picture sooner or later.

"I have a feeling we might see them again," Gross said.

Those are stark realities in the realist's stark vision of his sport. Things can change.

Quarterback Jake Delhomme doesn't always thread the needle or find star receiver Steve Smith uncovered, as he did on a 38-yard touchdown in the third quarter. Rookie tackle Jeff Otah (6-6, 330 pounds) and the other offensive linemen don't always provide tractor-trailer holes or recover overnight from minor injuries. Julius Peppers and other defensive linemen don't always harass quarterbacks with Jeff Garcia's savvy.

But they did all those things Monday night, which made Coach John Fox bubble over before delivering the realist's cautionary lament.

"I just don't want them to drink the Kool-Aid they're about to go into," Fox said, labeling the media's fawning elixir with a skull and crossbones.

The coach and the 5-9 Smith (nine catches, 117 yards) saw eye-to-eye on that score. Smith suggested focusing the spotlight elsewhere.

"Naw, don't pay no attention," he said. "We don't want any attention. Just keep saying unnamed wide receivers and unnamed running backs. We like that attention."

The tributes to the dashing Williams and smashing Stewart must run their course. Smith called their numbers first when asked what transpired out there on the Charlotte grass.

"Well," he said, "34 and 28, that's what happened. Those guys got going. When you're 5-8 and 270 pounds, you're hard to stop."

He exaggerates, but only about 35 pounds per runner.

Receiver Muhsin Muhammad appreciates the stylistic contrasts between Williams ("more of a make-you-miss guy") and Stewart, who bullies through tackles.

"Back in the day," Muhammad said, "we had Stephen Davis and DeShaun Foster when we went to the Super Bowl before. Those two guys complemented each other pretty well at that time, but these two guys are really different."

There he goes with those Super Bowl references. They're plausible, but in early December they're still worth only about 50 cents per sentence.