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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Having lost several players for the season to knee injuries, the New Orleans Saints’ main objectives heading in to Thursday’s final exhibition against the Miami Dolphins were to leave Sun Life Stadium with all of their remaining top personnel healthy and to see who could boost their cases to be on the Week 1 roster.

They succeeded on both fronts, for the most part, despite losing a sloppy 24-21 contest to Miami in which the Saints turned the ball over three times and were whistled for 11 penalties and 80 yards.

Wide receiver Nick Toon hurt his chest and had blood in his mouth, and defensive end Glenn Foster, who had four sacks in the preseason, tweaked an ankle, but both should be fine, coach Sean Payton said.

With backup running back Travaris Cadet absent for reasons that weren’t known at kickoff, his chief competition, Khiry Robinson, and first-teamer Mark Ingram handled most of the rushing.

“There are a lot of guys fighting for jobs, fighting for roster spots,” Ingram said. “The last preseason game is important to a lot of people, so it’s important to all of us.”

Robinson, an undrafted rookie, capped off his preseason bid for Cadet’s job with 19 rushes for 87 yards and six catches for 50 yards and a lost fumble. He had a bit of good fortune when he fumbled on the goal line on another occasion in the fourth quarter and offensive lineman Tim Lelito fell on the ball in the end zone.

Nonetheless, that recipe of hard running and soft hands got Cadet a spot on the 53-man roster as an undrafted rookie in 2012, and this year Robinson outplayed him for most of the preseason.

Meanwhile, despite Payton’s decision to sit most of his first team for the majority of the game, Cadet being out meant someone had to split carries with Robinson. That duty fell to Ingram, who had nine carries for 49 yards and an 8-yard touchdown in three quarters of work. He lost a fumble at New Orleans’ 14 in the second quarter, but Payton and his staff will be glad Ingram didn’t tweak, pull or tear anything.

Read more: Saints dodge disaster but lose preseason finale to Miami | Saints | The Advocate — Baton Rouge, LA

Rugby Saint II

What happened to our depth?

homerj07

That game was UG-L-EE. Big time. Don't mind the loss hate the sloppy play