The San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Raiders entered Thursday night’s tilt with not much hope left in the season as they kicked off Week 9 of the NFL season with a combined 2-13 record.
While the Raiders haven’t been able to get much done on either side of the ball all season long, the Niners have been plagued by bad injury luck since the preseason and Thursday night wasn’t any different. With both Jimmy Garoppolo and C.J. Beathard sidelined due to injuries, it meant it was Nick Mullens time in San Fran on Thursday and he put on a show all night long.
The undrafted quarterback was promoted from the practice squad once Garoppolo suffered his season-ending injury and he was nearly unstoppable in his NFL debut. The 23-year-old finished the night 16-for-22 with 262 yards and three touchdowns as he led the 49ers to a massive 34-3 victory and his performance was impressive enough to get him verified on Twitter in the middle of the game.
It’s pretty amazing that just about no one knew who he was when the Niners announced that he’d be starting on Thursday and now they’re probably hoping he can keep this going the rest of the way, even if they are well back of a playoff spot.
(H/T Twitter/thecheckdown)
