[RockyBalboa]

Originally Posted by ute4ever

All season long, Eric Weddle was the best defensive back on the field, thus the opposing offenses tended to avoid him.

However, passing plays would not be routed away from him every time. Sometimes when you are facing a star player, you go in his direction. NFL offenses would avoid Deion Sanders, but not every time. MLB pitchers sometimes intentionally walk Barry Bonds, but not every time.

In the final play of last year's Holy War, it was all or nothing. Utah saw Curtis Brown as the greatest offensive threat, and BYU saw Eric Weddle as the greatest defensive threat. Each team wanted to keep the ball away from those players.

And that's all there is to it.

In the bottom of the ninth, if the score is tied and the Giants have a man on, the pitcher will intentionally walk Barry. Maybe not in the fifth inning, but certainly when the game is on the line.

In Utah's next game, the Armed Forces Bowl, Tulsa did not choose to avoid Weddle on the final play of the game, and the result would have been a pick-6 except Weddle took a knee.

Except that BYU didn't avoid going after Weddle.