I agree that who he made the catch over takes a bit away from the catch.
But the best thing about it isn't even the catch. It's that his QB asked the coach to put him in over Britt and then immediately went to him down the field for the game-winning TD. He threw it up and let him make a play, and that builds the kind of confidence that a rookie (and his QB) feed off of.
I know it's rumored that he supposedly asked for the guy, but is it possible they went to him deep 'cuz they were attacking a scrub that got signed off the street last week?
I don't mean to upset anyone
BTW, no offense, just trying to explain things here since you asked...
this was excerpted from link in post 201 above...
“We have a lot of faith in Justin. Justin is going to be an extremely special player,” offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains said. “When we had to have it, that's a guy that Jake wanted in, that's a guy that we wanted in as a coaching staff. We knew we were gonna give him a jump ball, and there was an extreme mismatch no matter who was covering him. He was gonna go up above them and catch the ball.”
seems to confirm "rumor", coming from OC?
the play is fairly short, maybe 10 seconds, you should check it out (if you haven't already since you said you hadn't), than you could get back with your actual impressions...
the last play was reportedly one in which four WRs went on vertical routes to stress the secondary (ex charger SS rodney harrison was beside himself on why CB didn't have over the top help from safety in cover two shell, but that is the point, they don't call it cover four, aren't four safeties over the top to keep the lid on all four vertical routes)...
you can read into above quote what you will, but it sounds like the plan was to get the ball to hunter, regardless of who was covering him, if he had single coverage (even if it had been pro bowl safety weddle?)...
an important takeaway point, they have a lot of confidence in him to win jump balls... so the same reason they drafted him, is the reason they went to an unproven rookie in a critical, potentially game winning situation at end of a game... the questions you have asked are logical, but we also need to acknowledge going to him in this situation represented a breakthrough in his former use in first two weeks... and he did come through with the game winner, so that increases the chance they will continue to feature him in such situations if he keeps coming through, and possibly accelerate the time table of his development (maybe if he makes more plays in beginning and middle of games, they won't need to count on last second game savers)...
if another WR had been wide open with no defender within 30 yards of him, i'm guessing he would have gone there, unless locker was too locked on to hunter, so in that sense, no, i don't think who was defending him had as much to do with locker looking in his direction as you suggested as a possibility...
the short answer to your question is that locker probably was looking for him because he is 6'4", runs a 4.4 and has 40"+ VJ... before 2011 knee injury he elicited moss comparisons... even since, still limited, he was compared to AJ green... he outplayed teammate cordarrelle patterson at tennessee in 2012 (as a WR, patterson dynamic all purpose weapon)... that is what i would do? it isn't like he hasn't done this before... in college he made other spectacular catches highpointing the ball, even in between two defenders at times (freeze frame below highlight approx 21 second mark)... dude has the catching radius of a winnebago!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFykvxt0Cg8