"The first time Steve Slaton butted helmets with a Rex Ryan-coached defense in Reliant Stadium, he couldn't help but walk — or stagger — off the field impressed.

Last season, when Slaton was en route to becoming the NFL's rookie rushing champion and Ryan was still coordinating the fearsome Baltimore defense, Slaton's four carries on the day produced a scant 7 yards in a 41-13 Ravens rout.

Not much has changed with Ryan having taken over as the Jets' head coach. Slaton's first six carries Sunday netted just a single yard, and New York left town with a 24-7 victory.

So make that Ryan 65, Texans 20. Regarding Buddy Ryan's son having once been quoted as saying, "Trust me, I'll stop your run. Say what you want about me, but if I want to, I'll stop your run." . . . It's not bragging if it's true, right?

"They were clogging things up," Slaton conceded. "We knew they'd have a lot of movement, a lot of different looks. We practiced against that all week. They just outwilled us today."

Ankle not an issue

With no ground attack for support, Texans quarterback Matt Schaub would be rendered similarly impotent. Schaub was injured and didn't play when the Ravens visited a year ago, but he experienced the full fury of Ryan's system this day, passing for just 166 yards and no touchdowns while completing barely over half his passes, suffering an interception and getting sacked twice.

It was the puniest complete-game effort, yardage-wise, of Schaub's tenure as a Texan. His 55.5 rating was the second worst of his 23 starts for Houston.

And no, don't blame the sprained ankle he suffered against Minnesota in his next-to-last preseason start.

"The ankle felt good," he said, "and I was ready to play."

Alas, so were the Jets.

"A lot of credit has to go to them and how their defense played schematically, how they came after us," Schaub said. "They just played better than we did."

But he admitted the Texans obligingly did everything they could short of serenading the visitors with a rousing chorus of New York, New York to roll out a red carpet. The NFL's third-best offense of a year ago never came close to revealing itself."