Louis Murphy told Jimmy Garoppolo, ‘I will make a play for you.’

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo threw the first touchdown of his 49ers career to wide receiver Louis Murphy facing the Seahawks. Things didn’t go as well for the two connecting in Chicago, an early pass to Murphy getting stolen away from him by Bears defender Kyle Fuller. Murphy promised his new quarterback that he would make a play to make up for the interception later in the game. It was the only pass that Murphy would catch in Chicago and it just so happened to be into triple coverage.

When asked to talk about that throw and reception he explained it in great detail:

Oh man, yeah, yeah. I couldn’t believe he threw it. We worked on it in practice, we hit it in practice but it wasn’t the coverage we had in practice, and man....he just trusted me. That’s what you want from your quarterback. You want to be able to trust, you want him to trust you, and vice versa so it gave me a chance, I made a play.

I know early on in the game I didn’t make a play for him and I told him I was going to make a play for him and get it back. He just threw a great ball, the line held up, threw a great ball into triple coverage. I just came down with it. Even the dude that tackled me was like, ‘There’s no way you freaking caught that!’ and I was like ‘Yeah, I did bro.’

Murphy spoke with high regard about Garoppolo’s presence since he’s been with the team and how it incites trust and chemistry.

That’s the kind the kind of faith and trust we have to build with each other and we working hard every day in practice to do that.

Murphy also detailed the pass that Fuller ripped from his arms:

It was a good ball. I actually caught it clean man but Fuller is a good cornerback, he made great play on the ball.. They get paid just like we get paid. I had it first, I tucked it in, he had both hands on it and when I got hit the ball kind of jarred loose and he took it.

Murphy told Garoppolo, after that play, which counted as an interception for his quarterback, that he would make a play for him later in the game, and make it he did.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan commented on the play as well:

Never like throwing it into triple coverage but sometimes you have to overcome coaching and make plays. I hold my breath and when I am about to be upset and when the receiver comes up with it, I say good job and move on to the next play.

Garoppolo actually didn’t see Murphy come down with it because he was hit before the catch:

I actually didn’t see him catch it. I got hit after that one. I knew his route, I knew what his depth was and everything. The linebacker had no vision on me so I knew he wasn’t going to make a play on the ball, and I just had to keep it away from the safety and the other linebacker coming over. So I kept it low and Murph made a tremendous catch- I heard, I’ll see it on film. I mean that’s the trust part of becoming a team. Especially on offense, trusting the o-line, the o-line trusting you, you trusting the receivers. It all plays a hand in each other.

Here’s Murphy’s whole interview: