diff --git a/okhttp/src/main/java/com/squareup/okhttp/Response.java b/okhttp/src/main/java/com/squareup/okhttp/Response.java
index 7da802686..276299222 100644
--- a/okhttp/src/main/java/com/squareup/okhttp/Response.java
+++ b/okhttp/src/main/java/com/squareup/okhttp/Response.java
@@ -60,15 +60,14 @@ public final class Response {
   }
 
   /**
-   * The wire-level request that initiated this HTTP response. This is usually
-   * <strong>not</strong> the same request instance provided to the HTTP client:
+   * The wire-level request that initiated this HTTP response. This is not
+   * necessarily the same request issued by the application:
    * <ul>
    *     <li>It may be transformed by the HTTP client. For example, the client
-   *         may have added its own {@code Content-Encoding} header to enable
-   *         response compression.
-   *     <li>It may be the request generated in response to an HTTP redirect.
-   *         In this case the request URL may be different than the initial
-   *         request URL.
+   *         may copy headers like {@code Content-Length} from the request body.
+   *     <li>It may be the request generated in response to an HTTP redirect or
+   *         authentication challenge. In this case the request URL may be
+   *         different than the initial request URL.
    * </ul>
    */
   public Request request() {
diff --git a/okhttp/src/main/java/com/squareup/okhttp/internal/http/HttpEngine.java b/okhttp/src/main/java/com/squareup/okhttp/internal/http/HttpEngine.java
index 27a6a25f1..5e1931655 100644
--- a/okhttp/src/main/java/com/squareup/okhttp/internal/http/HttpEngine.java
+++ b/okhttp/src/main/java/com/squareup/okhttp/internal/http/HttpEngine.java
@@ -509,7 +509,7 @@ public final class HttpEngine {
     closeQuietly(responseBodyBytes);
 
     // Close the connection if it cannot be reused.
-    if (transport != null && !transport.canReuseConnection()) {
+    if (transport != null && connection != null && !transport.canReuseConnection()) {
       closeQuietly(connection.getSocket());
       connection = null;
       return null;