San Francisco 49ers: Ray McDonald Looked Refreshed Against the New York Giants

Ray McDonald had a huge metaphorical weight taken off of his shoulders this past week, as he was cleared of the domestic-violence charges against him.  He responded by playing as if he had had an actual weight taken off his shoulders, turning in his best performance in years in the San Francisco 49ers’ win over the New York Giants.

McDonald recorded a sack and seven tackles against the Giants, both season highs.  It’s rare for 3-4 defensive ends to put up massive tackle numbers, as they are mostly there to soak up the offensive line and plug gaps, allowing the linebackers to flow around and make big plays.  Yet, only Chris Borland had more tackles then McDonald did this week.

But it wasn’t just those numbers that showed McDonald had a good day.  Pro Football Focus (subscription required) noted that every single one of his solo tackles (five, including the sack) resulted in an offensive failure. 

The five stops were tied for the most on the team this game, again with Borland.  McDonald also succeeded in the pass rush, with a quarterback hit and two hurries to go along with his sack, for an all-around great day.

USA TODAY Sports

Even getting away from the raw numbers, McDonald jumps out to you if you rewatch the game.  For most of the game, the Giants had Charles Brown and John Jerry manning the right tackle and guard positions, and it was just an utter disaster on their part. 

According to Big Blue View's Ed Valentine, Justin Pugh, the starter, had to leave the game after just eight snaps with an injured quad, and the 49ers took advantage.  Pro Football Focus records that Brown and Jerry had the worst pass-blocking efficiency among tackles and guards, respectively, in Week 11, and a lot of that can be chalked up to the play of McDonald.

McDonald’s pass rush forced bad throws and was part of the ongoing pressure that forced one of Eli Manning’s worst games ever.  McDonald’s one sack forced a fumble and was one of the major plays of the game.

At the beginning of the third quarter, with the Giants down only 9-7, they faced a 2nd-and-7 from their own 24-yard line.  They had weathered the storm that was the 49ers' first-half dominance and only trailed by two points, and this was when they could have started to mount a comeback.  Manning dropped back to pass, but no one was immediately open.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

It was John Jerry’s job to stop McDonald on this play, with help from Charles Brown.  They double-teamed McDonald, as it was only a four-man rush.  That should have been enough to take McDonald out of the play.  However, McDonald kept fighting and managed to sneak around Jerry with a little swim move, giving him a straight run at Manning. 

He got his arm wedged into Manning’s just as he was trying to throw the ball, knocking it loose.  An unfortunate bounce gave it back to the Giants, but it was still a dominant play, helping force a three-and-out.

USA TODAY Sports

Even when he couldn’t get there, McDonald was clogging up Jerry and Brown for Aaron Lynch and Aldon Smith—mostly Lynch, though the two outside linebackers did rotate a few times. 

All in all, the two Giants linemen gave up a combined 18 pressures on the day, including both of San Francisco’s sacks.  Full credit to the pass-rushing linemen, but McDonald was a key factor in all of that, as the Giants' offensive line simply couldn’t handle him.

Even bigger than his impact in the passing game, however, was McDonald’s effect on the run game.  The Giants had hoped that Rashad Jennings' return would give their run game a spark, but it wasn’t to be.  They ran the ball to the right 11 times and gained a total of 23 yards, an average of just 2.1 yards per carry.

Almost more importantly, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), they gained 20 yards after contact going to the right—meaning they were hit, generally, right at the line of scrimmage or behind it, managing only rarely to get any head of steam.  That gives full credit to the point of attack—McDonald.

McDonald’s biggest contribution on the day came on the 4th-and-inches play at the end of the third quarter, with the Giants trying to drive for a go-ahead touchdown.  Jennings, his fullback leading the way, tried to plow through the right guard to get the trivial yardage needed to extend the drive.

No-go.  McDonald and Antoine Bethea get penetration right from the point of attack.  If you’re counting on your offensive line to give you the push needed to get an inch, this is not the ideal outcome:

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

Bethea hits Jennings, stopping his momentum, and McDonald actually drags him to the turf for the big stop.  This was the 49ers' biggest defensive play of the game, non-interception or goal-line-stand categories. 

It was absolutely the right call for the Giants to go for it over punting, and it quite often works, too.  When teams face third and fourth down with one yard to go (excluding the goal line), teams have gotten a first down 67.9 percent of the time this season, according to Pro-Football-Reference.com.  The Giants themselves are at 69.2 percent! 

Plug the numbers into the fourth-down calculator from the Advanced Football Analytics site, and you see that if you think you can make it even 38 percent of the time, you should go for it.

It was easily the right call, but McDonald played lights-out.  In a play where the defense loses more often than not, he and Bethea made a huge play to stop the Giants cold, killing whatever momentum they had at the time.  It’s just one example of the kind of impact McDonald was making play-in and play-out throughout the game.

McDonald simply could not be contained.  He played as if he was playing with the weight of the world off his shoulders.  If he can keep that pace up for the rest of the year, it’s hard to imagine opposing teams getting anything going to their right.

Bryan Knowles is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report, covering the San Francisco 49ers.  Follow him @BryKno on Twitter.