Williams Says Receivers Failed to Make Things Easy for Klubnik

ATLANTA- Antonio Williams had one of his most productive days as a Clemson Tiger on Saturday.

However, he was one of the few bright spots for the No. 14 Tigers, as they got trounced by top-ranked Georgia 34-3 in the AFLAC Kickoff Game in Atlanta on Saturday.

Williams reeled in six catches for 76 yards, which ties for the second-most receiving yards he’s had in a single game. Unfortunately, the rest of the wide receivers totaled just 37 yards combined.

The junior wideout spoke with members of the media following the blowout loss, and while he heaped praise on the Bulldogs defense, Williams also pointed out there were a lot of self-inflicted mistakes.

“They are good, they definitely have my respect,” Williams said. “That first half we had the opportunities. We were getting going and I think we kept shooting ourselves in the foot with penalties. Mental mistakes and not doing the things we have been doing all camp.”

In fact, Williams was pretty critical of the wide receiver room as a whole and their play on Saturday. The veteran receiver believes that the offense will go as far as its wideouts take it, and he believes the talent is there to be much better than what was seen on Saturday.

“As receivers today, we did not do what we were supposed to do,” Williams said. “I think this team will go as far as we do. And I know we have the guys in here that can go up and make plays and do what we are supposed to. We just got to go out and do it.”

Cade Klubnik managed to pass for just 142 yards against the Georgia defense and the offense as a whole averaged just 3.4 yards per play.

If Clemson is going to rebound and have the type of season they envisioned coming in, those numbers must improve dramatically, and Williams says that starts with the receivers making things easier on Klubnik.

“We are supposed to make it easy on Cade,” Williams added. “He has a lot of stuff on his plate. He is supposed to make a read, trust that that guy is going to be there and trust that he is going to make that play. It is just the easy routine things that we missed today. Whether we were lining up wrong, false starts, things like that.”

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