I am looking at the players skills here. Sure play knowledge has an effect, but I researched a similar play years ago when I first played. I was baffled like you are here. The best that I could come up with then that looks similar is your player had low run defense. Definitely faster but the back had high or 100 ball carry. And the other commonality was the defender missed a tackle. In this one it looked like he got his ankles broke.
Still the flaw in the code ( only cause it looks wierd and makes little sense) is in a foot race that guy should catch him. I assumed it's a stamina thing. Getting so winded by the missed tackle he just can't keep up. Show that 100 speed till the whistle.
Take my creative nonsense out and ball carry vs. Run defense and perhaps tackle vs. Break tackle cause these visual anomalies . Others in my thread had suggested ball carry.
In my case it was a 270 lb TE with 73 speed out running several smaller players with more speed, but all the defenders had prior interactions that play. Whether it was a missed tackle or a shedding of a block.
Personally, I think it is a strong stamina hit during the prior interactions combined with the high ball carry.
Still, why not play knowledge. I did not research that part then. It was a vet TE. Perhaps the QB had high play knowledge too and I was under two seasons for sure building my defense. A rookie CB was one of the main culprits. He had potentially A grade every where except strength.