Asked about his jump in production this year, Murphy said, “I feel like I’m playing better, I’m getting better week in and week out. I’ve just got to keep going, keep preparing how I’m preparing, trust in the coaches and the game plan, and also my guys around me. I’ve just got to keep going.”
And Murphy wasn’t just disruptive in the passing game, he was also a big part of team effort against the run, with the Jaguars managing just 59 yards on 19 attempts for a 3.1 yards-per-carry average, number that were well below their numbers coming into the game, with Jacksonville ranking fifth in the league in rushing yards (137.0) and sixth in rushing yards per carry (4.9) prior to Sunday.
“He’s a young bull,” DeMarcus Lawrence said. “He’s the man in the middle, making sure he’s taking care of the run. I believe he’s our No. 1 run defender, hands down. He comes to work each and every day, and that young spirit brightens up us older guys in the room to come to work with him.”
And as Murphy shared after the game, his big performance on Sunday was far from being the biggest moment of his week. On Tuesday, Murphy’s fiancé, Maya, gave birth to the couple’s daughter, Danee’ Azaria, who was born three months early, weighing just two pounds, five ounces. That meant daily visits to the neonatal intensive care unit, but fortunately their daughter is breathing on her own and making good progress.
“It was hard getting a lot of sleep,” Murphy said of his week. “I was at the hospital pretty much every day this past week. My daughter, she’s doing good, but she’s in the NICU right now. She was three months early, but she’s breathing on her own, she’s doing very well. She’s developing pretty fast.”
Murphy added that Maya is “doing great. She’s doing good.”
Asked about the balance between doing his day job and worrying about a premature newborn who is still in the NICU, Murphy said, “I just keep reminding myself that I still have a job to do, and also checking on my baby girl to make sure she’s good. I was able to balance that really well.”