We recently got a Full Throttle on location.

I'm just curious to know how the pop-up post is supposed to function during the skill shot, and an autoplunge ball save, as the behavior I am seeing doesn't seem correct.

If the skill shot is made, the ball continues unabated, through the "garage" path, and often goes SDTM. Then you get a ball save, it autoplunges, and the same thing happens. If you don't make the skill shot, the post comes up and drops the ball into the pop bumpers. It would seem like either the post or the lock magnet should stop the ball from taking that path that tends to send the ball SDTM.