Interesting. Why do you think there is such disdain for him? I ask sincerely.
The short version? With apologies to posters on premium who've heard me say this before, I blame confirmation bias. Plenty of people made up their minds long ago that Williams is a bad QB (or Fedora is a bad coach, or Littrell is a bad OC, etc.) and so they latch on to any evidence supporting their opinion while disregarding any evidence that contradicts it.
The long version? The last offensive series against South Carolina is a microcosm of this issue. The specific plays from that drive I've seen cited on the boards are 1) MW taking a 2-yard loss by running out of bounds when he couldn't find an open receiver, 2) the Hood highlight-reel run for 29 yards, and of course 3) the final interception.
On 1), posters are screaming that a 5th year QB should know to throw the ball out of bounds rather than take a loss. Perfectly valid point. On 2), several posters have said Hood should've gotten the rock more since he was the one who had carried us to the South Carolina 9-yard line. That's a partial truth since Hood only ran the ball once for 29 yards on that drive. It was a spectacular play, no doubt, but it wasn't like he had single-handedly put us in position to win. People also quickly forgot that Hood's previous carry had gone for a loss. As far as 3), well, that was just a terrible decision and throw.
Now let's talk about the plays that nobody has mentioned. The first was a 13-yard first down completion to Bug Howard where MW did a nice job to find Howard coming out of his break on a dig route. On the very next play, South Carolina blitzed an outside linebacker who came in untouched from MW's blind side. With the blitzer grabbing on to MW's jersey, and crushing him just a split-second later, MW was able to step into the throw and complete a 16-yard pass to Quinshad Davis for another 1st down. Later, on 2nd and short, Jon Heck committed a false start penalty that put us in 2nd and long. MW hit Mack Hollins perfectly on an out route to the sideline that put us back in a manageable 3rd-and-1 situation, which led to the big play by Hood. [Sidebar: worth noting the coaches who "don't know how to use their backs" had Hood in on a critical 3rd and short.] After an incompletion, the next pass hit Bug Howard right in the hands and he dropped it, putting the Heels in 3rd and 10. On the next play, MW hit Switzer in stride on a quick screen to pick up another critical 3rd down conversion. It was a fairly routine pass, though, and most of the credit goes to Kendrick Singleton for a crushing block that freed up Switzer to get past the chains.
You get the idea. Our QB who is "wildly inconsistent" on "all types of passes" and always "looking to run ASAP" did a pretty good job moving us from our own 12-yard line to the opponent's 9-yard line. All that in spite of an OL committing a stupid penalty and a WR dropping a pass (neither of whom I've heard criticized). MW was a major factor in putting us in a position to win the game before everything fell apart.
MW is obviously limited in ways that we all recognize. I'm certainly not blind to that, and the three interceptions on Thursday were pretty horrific from a decision-making and execution perspective. But when people deliberately choose to focus on only the worst aspects of his performance while completely ignoring the rest, you end up with an exaggerated account of his shortcomings that is unreasonable and unfair. I think this is going to be my last post on the topic because I've grown pretty tired of it. It seems like no one is going to change their mind.
