NEW ORLEANS &045; No worry.

The Week 1 loss to Seattle wasn’t a memorable day, and the first half Sunday against Houston didn’t go the way they planned, either. But hey &045; no worry.

It was the final 30 minutes when the New Orleans Saints clicked on offense, came with a strong defensive effort and took a convincing 31-10 win over the Texans Sunday afternoon at The Louisiana Superdome.

It wasn’t that the loss to the Seahawks was tough to shake off. Merely, that was last week and this was this week.

&uot;A lot of guys stepped up,&uot; said receiver Joe Horn, who had 11 catches for 110 yards while missing practice earlier in the week with injuries. &uot;This game boils down to one man against one man. We won the game, but we’re still not the offense we’re proclaimed to be. We’ve got to head into Nashville (next week) and pick up where we left off.&uot;

But perhaps the biggest improvement from last week &045; and last season, for that matter &045; was the Saints’ defense made life tough on an offense for a good amount of time. The unit had troubles early last week against the Seahawks, provoking memories of last year’s break-but-not bend unit that was one of the worst in the league.

On Sunday the revamped defense put Houston quarterback David Carr on the turf five times and hurried him numerous times &045; stirring up bad memories after he was sacked an NFL-record 76 times last season.

&uot;We started off slow, but I thought we picked it up in the second half,&uot; Saints head coach Jim Haslett said. &uot;We finally got into a situation where we could get after some people on defense. We know what we are as a football team. We’ll play hard and do the things we do. Our team stuck together. We played hard last week, but we didn’t play smart. We played smart today.&uot;

The Texans never could get the run established, especially in the second half as they finished with just 75 yards rushing. That forced the Texans and David Carr into more and more passing situations as the second half wore on, and the defense never allowed Carr to get comfortable in the pocket.

&uot;We lost to a team that out-played us in the second half,&uot; Houston head coach Dom Capers said. &uot;When we get in situations where it’s an obvious pass and we’re a one-dimensional team, we aren’t quite where we need to be at this time. I think what we saw today in the second half probably resembled more of what we saw a year ago when we could not run the football when we had a lot of third-and-long situations.&uot;

While the Texans struggled on offense and couldn’t move the football, the Saints took advantage and moved much it much better in the second half after getting the running game established and coming up with some big plays. Houston’s 10-7 halftime lead didn’t last long as the Saints drove 64 yards on their first drive and capped it with a 35-yard pass from Aaron Brooks to Dont Stallworth for a touchdown.

That pass perhaps more than anything jumpstarted the offense and the entire team to take control of the game.

&uot;We need to continue to maintain our composure during tough times,&uot; Brooks said after the Saints struggled offensively in the first half. &uot;We have to make sure we aren’t impatient regardless of how the game is going. I was just so pleased with the offensive line. They did a great job today. It was a confidence booster for us. We didn’t play well in Seattle, but we did today.&uot;

The Texans were forced to punt on their next drive, and the Saints drove it 57 yards before settling on a 37-yard John Carney field goal with :22 seconds left in the third for a 17-10 lead. But the game was still in reach for the Texans, and Charles Grant sacked Carr on a first down that later put them in a third-and-8 situation to force a punt.

Brooks hit Horn on a 17-yard pass on the first play, and eight plays later he hit tight end Ernie Conwell for a 2-yard pass for a score with 8:56 left for the 24-10 lead.

&uot;They had an eight-man front to stop Deuce (early),&uot; Haslett said. &uot;I thought we ran the ball better in the second half. I thought Aaron did an outstanding job today. He did a good job of spreading the ball around today. If I was them, I’d try to take Deuce out of the game. I don’t know if they succeeded, but Deuce struggled a little bit in the first half. In the second half he broke some tackles and got into the secondary. When you get a guy like him in the secondary, it’s hard to tackle him.&uot;

McAllister and the Saints’ offense had their struggles early in the game as the Texans held tight on defense and took the lead at halftime. McAllister broke a 24-yard run on the Saints’ second drive for their only touchdown of the half, and it was part of the team’s only drive of the first half that netted a first down.

Five other possessions ended in a Mitch Berger punt.

&uot;This is something you don’t want to go through every week,&uot; Carr said. &uot;After a decent first half, we faced third and long it seemed like all game. We can’t just drop back and be in this situation all game long. They made better adjustments than we did. That’s the biggest disappointment &045; knowing we could have won just like last week.&uot;

The Texans had the best drives of the first half and used some Saints penalties to keep things going. After starting on their own 39, the Texans got penalties for 15 (unnecessary roughness) and 13 (pass interference) yards to get into good field position when Carr hit Jabar Gaffney on a pass that looked like a fumble when Gaffney lost the ball while diving over the goal line.

Officials, however, ruled him out of bounds at the 2, and Carr ran in on the next play for a score to tie the game at 7-7.

The Texans got a 31-yard pass from Carr to Corey Bradford just before the half to set up a 30-yard Kris Brown field goal for the 10-7 lead.