Alex Collins is doing his best to save the Seahawks’ season

Alex Collins is basically the offensive version of Earl Thomas. That is to say, he has played only for the Seattle Seahawks and Baltimore Ravens.

Though the Seahawks did not win on Sunday, it was close for a couple of minutes there at the beginning and Collins did his very best to keep them in it.

It approaches comical that Collins was signed the Seattle’s practice squad on November 4th, less than two weeks ago. Come Sunday against one of the NFL’s better defenses, it was not young talents DeeJay Dallas or Travis Homer in as starter. On a single-digit amount of official team practices, Alex Collins ran 43 yards on 11 carries, with one rushing TD.

It’s not a fantastic day, but it sure beats a 2.7 yards per carry day any time. Collin’s 3.9 YPC against the Los Angeles Rams was just barely less than their average, giving up 4.1 YPC per game this season.

Then we factor in the fact that Collins had a 13 yard run, so that gives 10-for-30 for the rest of the day, which is, well, not very good either so let’s instead say we don’t factor in the 13 yard run.

Except...was that a broken tackle!? Haven’t seen one of those in a couple weeks. What a thrill.

It’s pretty clear at this point that the Let Russ Cook movement does not thrive without some semblance of a run game. Which is true of every great quarterback performance and performer: it can’t be the only thing a team does. The known way to beat Aaron Donald is to run at his face as he doesn’t seem to like that; something this team cannot currently do.

But it sure brought joy in the midst of turmoil to see Alex Collins out there occasionally looking like an NFL running back again on a week and a half of work. With center Ethan Pocic out and Mike Iupati banged up, what Collins was able to accomplish was more than admirable. But why this team can’t keep a running back healthy in the past two seasons is maddening.

Considering the previous injuries and short turnaround, if Carson can’t make it back I would fully expect Collins over Dallas/Homer again (though that will take some roster moves, as Collins has been elevated twice already) on Thursday against an Arizona Cardinals team that’s weaker against the run than the Rams.