When he returned to his Clayton home Sunday evening after the Rams spanked the Cowboys, Jim Haslett:

a) Popped open a bottle of champagne.

b) Ordered a pizza.

c) Did Soduku puzzles.

d) Went straight to bed.

e) Turned on the Tampa Bay-Seattle game.

“I watched the game,” Haslett said. “I watch all the games.”

Elaborating, Haslett said, “This is the only business in the world where you work all day and you can go home and watch at night and still enjoy it. A dentist doesn’t do that. Think about it. Surgeons, they don’t do that. They don’t go home and watch somebody do operations.

“It’s a great life.”

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Newly anointed defensive coordinator Rick Venturi, who has worked off and on with Haslett since 1996, had a pointed message for the players when the head-coaching change was made Sept. 29.

“I told them they were very fortunate. You have here a proven head coach to take this team over, not a guy to mop up,” Venturi recalled. “This is a guy who went into a franchise that was down in New Orleans and had one losing season, pre-Katrina. One, that’s it.

“This is a guy who knows how to win, he has a presence with players, and he learned from his first experience. It’s a neat thing.”

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Notes & quotes:

*An MRI exam showed that RB Steven Jackson has a “mild strain” of his right thigh muscle and should be able to play Sunday at New England, Haslett reported.

*If Jackson can’t go, Haslett said he’ll use a three-headed running attack with Travis Minor, Antonio Pittman and Kenneth Darby.

*Look for recently signed TE Daniel Fells to elbow his way further into the mix. He’s showed off good hands in practice.

*Haslett, on DE Leonard Little’s game Sunday: “He got a sack on a three-man rush, just turned the corner on the guy and got a sack. They’ve got seven guys blocking three, and he gets a sack. That’ll tell you something about what kind of skills he has.”

All for now . . .