NEW ORLEANS -- Like a left-fielder chasing down a long fly ball headed toward the wall, Dolphins cornerback Sean Smith stretched his lanky right arm toward the roof of the Superdome as he waited on Saints quarterback Mark Brunell's 25-yard pass to fall.

When it finally dropped, the football stuck to the rookie's palm like Velcro. A one-handed interception. In the end zone. While he straddled the sideline. With the left side of his body pressed against Saints wide receiver Courtney Roby in coverage.

Yes, it looked as impressive as it sounds.

``The guy has tremendous ball skills,'' Dolphins coach Tony Sparano said.

Good news: During Miami's final exhibition game -- a 10-7 victory against New Orleans -- the rookie wasn't the only Dolphins player to show some star power. With the regular season in clear view, several starters began to stand out as Miami finished the preseason 4-0.

It wasn't always pretty, but the Dolphins still can feel good about several individual plays made by prominent players early in the game.

``You saw a little more continuity, and that's what you should see,'' quarterback Chad Pennington said. ``I'm glad we had this test.''

There was wide receiver Greg Camarillo, getting his toes in bounds on a sweet, 17-yard snag of a Pennington pass along the sideline. And Davone Bess, making a diving catch three plays later for a 7-yard gain.

There was linebacker Jason Taylor, deflecting one of Brunell's passes on a play that was close to turning into a Pick Six, reminiscent of all those highlights from Taylor's 2006 season, when he was the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year.

There was Ricky Williams, running along the sideline as if it were a tightrope as he gained 10 yards that initially didn't seem to exist. And Ronnie Brown, who laid down a mean stiff-arm that proved once more he is ready for the regular season.

``The preseason is all about building chemistry and building timing,'' Camarillo said. ``We're getting there. We made some good plays, but there's also some plays that we can still get better on.''

PROBLEMS TO SOLVE

Of course, it wasn't always that pretty Thursday. Those highlights simply helped provide a glimpse of the playmaking potential that Miami has longed to see throughout this preseason, which concluded with the victory against the Saints.

There still were plenty of bigger issues that presented themselves, many of which will need to be solved between now and the start of the regular season. The play on special teams still looks shoddy at best, and it was most notable at the end of the game when the Saints returned a punt for a touchdown.

``We're going to look at the film,'' Sparano said. ``But we've got to get better about that.''

And Sparano surely didn't like to see the Saints rip off a 43-yard gain on a short pass to Lynell Hamilton, who skated past safeties Yeremiah Bell and Gibril Wilson before finally being chased down by Cameron Wake.

Those are the issues that have continued to pop up throughout training camp, and each of them needs to be solved quickly.

The team also has another task to be taken care of immediately: With one day before the team must trim the roster to 53 players, general manager Jeff Ireland will use Thursday's game as the final evaluation of several players on the bubble. The team currently has 66 players on the roster.

The deadline to get down to 53 players is 4 p.m. Saturday.

As for the play of the quarterbacks, Pennington continued to look poised and prepared for the start of the season. He completed 8 of 11 passes for 57 yards. Also, perhaps just as important from an evaluation standpoint, second-year quarterback Chad Henne managed to bounce back from last week's struggles against the Bucs.

Henne completed his first seven passes Thursday, one of which was a crisply thrown dart to Ted Ginn Jr. for a 23-yard gain. That particular pass had the type of velocity and zip on it that has caused coaches to praise Henne since his arrival.

BALL CONTROL

Both Pennington and Henne also played safe football, managing to refrain from throwing any interceptions.

``I'm happy with the progress I've made, but I know there's more out there,'' Henne said.

The Dolphins now enter regular-season mode as they prepare for their opener. Miami begins its schedule by playing the Falcons in Atlanta on Sept. 13.

``We struggled last week as a team against Tampa, and that's why we came out [Thursday] with one goal in mind: to execute,'' Ginn said.

``Now it's time to play real football -- to get into the game week and show what we're made of.''