Seahawks rookie Alex Collins made the most of 2 snaps vs Atlanta

Rookie running back Alex Collins was on the field for all of two snaps during the Seahawks’ 26-24 win over Atlanta on Sunday, but he came up big on each of them.

Relieving a banged-up Christine Michael in the second quarter, Collins punched in a 2-yard touchdown run for his first NFL score, which gave Seattle a 14-3 lead. His third-down catch for 9 yards on a Russell Wilson scramble in the fourth quarter extended what turned out to be Seattle’s game-winning field goal drive.

Two snaps, two critical plays.

“I give all the credit to Russell and his athleticism to even get the ball off to me,” Collins said about his catch. “I was just doing my job in there. I had to pick up a blitz and I felt the flow of the guys, so in my mind I knew Russell had to scramble out because of how they played me, so I just tried to be available for Russ and he did a great job of giving me the ball.”

Collins, a fifth-round pick, hasn’t seen the field much this season, buried on Seattle’s running-back depth chart even with injuries to Thomas Rawls and C.J. Prosise. He was inactive for the opener then played four, 18 and six offensive snaps the next three games. Six of his nine touches in that span came in Seattle’s blowout win over San Francisco.

He made the most of his limited chances Sunday, to say the least.

“Really, I was really proud of him for contributing the way he did in a big way, in a crucial way, a crucial time,” coach Pete Carroll told “Brock and Salk” on Monday.

Here are a few other notes on Seattle’s snap counts vs. the Falcons:

• Tight end Jimmy Graham played 63 of 66 offensive snaps (95 percent), the most of anyone other than quarterback Russell Wilson and the starting offensive linemen. Luke Willson went down in the fourth quarter with a knee injury and didn’t return, but Graham was well on his way to another busy day by that point. Another good sign that he’s getting back to full speed following his knee injury: he caught six of nine targets for 89 yards.

• Wide receiver Tyler Lockett played 42 snaps on offense (64 percent), which was a more standard workload than what he had been getting while he was limited over the previous two and a half games by a knee injury. He caught three of five targets for 23 yards, returned three punts for 21 yards and four kickoffs for 85 yards. C.J. Spiller took one kickoff return, gaining 24 yards.

• On defense, Kevin Pierre-Louis played 40 of 67 snaps (60 percent) in his first start at strong-side linebacker. That marked a significant increase from the first four games in the amount of time the Seahawks stuck with their base defense compared to going to nickel, which means subbing out their strong-side linebacker in favor of a third cornerback. Jeremy Lane had played about 74 percent of the defensive snaps over the first four games and 39 percent on Sunday as Seattle spent more time in base. Carroll seemed pleased with the way Pierre-Louis played in his first start of the season and second of his career.