Let’s appreciate this Nick Mullens moment, however long it lasts

Before Thursday, no quarterback in the illustrious history of the San Francisco 49ers had ever thrown more than one touchdown pass in their debut. Not Joe Montana. Not Steve Young. Nick Mullens did it by halftime.

By the end of his first NFL game, Mullens had 262 passing yards, three touchdowns, and a passer rating of 151.9.

Marcus Mariota’s four-touchdown performance and perfect passer rating of 158.3 is the only better debut start in NFL history. But Mariota was the No. 2 overall selection and a Heisman Trophy winner. What made Mullens’ first game particularly special is that it came completely out of left field.

Mullens, 23, went undrafted in 2017, despite smashing all of the passing records at Southern Miss — the alma mater of Brett Favre. This was how NFL.com described Mullens in a breakdown of his skills prior to the 2017 NFL Draft:

BOTTOM LINE Mullens is a productive college quarterback with good competitiveness and toughness, but lacking the minimum standards of size and arm strength. Mullens could make it into camp, but is unlikely to find a spot on a roster.

He landed a contract with the 49ers and did enough to show he was worth a spot on the practice squad, where he spent his entire rookie year. He probably would’ve stayed there for his second season too, had Jimmy Garoppolo’s torn ACL not forced the 49ers to put Mullens on the active roster at the end of September.

A little over a month later, he became No. 1 on the depth chart for the Thursday Night Football game against the Raiders due to a wrist injury for C.J. Beathard. And he balled the hell out.

The Raiders gave Mullens a great opportunity to show out. The first touchdown of his career came on a blatantly blown coverage that left Pierre Garcon without an Oakland defender within 10 yards:

He got to go against a Raiders pass rush that is easily the worst in the NFL. And at times Thursday, it looked like the entire Oakland defense had quit.

The Raiders just didn’t force him into many difficult throws:

If there’s a possible exception to that “no tight window” throws stat, it was his 71-yard connection with George Kittle that was probably ill-advised but worked out anyway:

But even if the Raiders helped set up Mullens’ big night, he also performed in a way that Beathard hasn’t in 2018.

In five starts, Beathard threw eight touchdowns with seven interceptions and fumbled on five of his 18 times getting sacked. If there was one thing Mullens did especially well Thursday, it was that he stayed remarkably calm during the few times he was pressured by the Raiders.

If Oakland sent a blitz to rattle the 23-year-old quarterback, he just diced them up:

At no point in time did the moment look too big for Mullens:

Regardless if Beathard is healthy enough to start Week 10, it’s difficult to imagine the 49ers going away from the hot hand.

Mullens led San Francisco to its first win since Week 2 and will almost definitely be the guy under center again when the 49ers face the New York Giants on Monday Night Football next week. After that, it’s a bye and a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Don’t be surprised if Mullens continues to impress against that soft November slate.

The unfortunate reality is that Mullens probably isn’t a prodigy. The 49ers will go back to Garoppolo in 2019, and there probably won’t be lines of teams begging to trade for Mullens.

In his five career preseason appearances, Mullens threw just one touchdown with four interceptions. Every bit of logic tells us this will likely come crashing back to Earth soon.

So let’s just enjoy a remarkable story while it lasts. Just listen to how much the moment Thursday meant to Mullens:

“It’s everything I dreamed of,” Mullens tells FOX’s Erin Andrews. “It’s only one game — which is very important — but I’ve been in the organization for two years just trying to learn as much as I could, prepare like I’m the starter every week, and this week was my week. So you just have to take advantage of opportunities when they come and they came.”

The big night for Mullens came after he didn’t get much sleep the night prior:

The 49ers improved to 2-7 with the win. Any shot at the postseason disappeared when Garoppolo went down and Mullens isn’t going to rescue that. But on a night that should’ve been a boring one between one-win teams, we got the best underdog story of the season.