By Will Vandervort.

Clemson defensive tackle DeShawn Williams says last Saturday’s loss at Georgia Tech lingered longer than normal.

Why? The Tigers did not play up to their standard.

“Just losing the way we did. We could not control some things,” the senior defensive tackle said. “You have to learn to move on from it and move onto the next game.”

The next game for Clemson is on Saturday at home against Georgia State, who is a 40-point underdog despite the Tigers inability to move the football after quarterback Deshaun Watson left the game with a knee injury.

“Like coach Swinney tells us, ‘You don’t want one loss to become two losses,” Williams said. “Our mind is on Georgia State. We will watch film on them and move on. We can’t dwell on it.”

What the Tigers (7-3) can dwell on are the positives. Despite the struggles from the offense, the defense held up quite fine against the Yellow Jackets highly productive triple-option attack. Though Georgia Tech rushed for 251 yards, it was 85 yards behind its season average of 336. They also had 123 fewer total yards than their average.

“Against an offense like that it says something when you can hold them,” Williams said. “They are such a threat at creating big plays and that is what we did not want to do and to start the second half they broke that long run and that kind of hurt us a little because they drove down and scored on that drive.

“We didn’t know we did that well. We were playing and we did not want to give up. It doesn’t matter now. It is on to Georgia State.”

Speaking of Georgia State, the Panthers have lost nine straight games and are coming off a 41-25 loss to Troy. The week before that, Appalachian State shut them out, 44-0.

Williams said he started watching film on Georgia State right after the Tigers got back from Atlanta on Saturday.

“They have a big offensive line and their record does not show how hard that they play,” he said. “They have skilled receivers that go get the ball and a nice quarterback and running back and of course those big guys up front.

“They have some talent so we can’t take them likely. I don’t think we will. We respect every opponent.”

But given the Panthers’ 1-9 record, the disappointment with what happened at Georgia Tech and the fact archrival South Carolina is waiting in the wings, it would not be beyond Clemson to have a little bit of a letdown and surely everyone could understand that.

“I was talking to one of our strength coaches this morning. I just want us as a team to get back together and get better as a team this week,” Williams said. “I did not like what I saw last week in Atlanta. I just want us—offense, defense and special teams—to get together and be a family and just play hard for each other.”

With quarterback Cole Stoudt struggling and the offense following his lead, Williams said it is time for the rest of the team to rally around each other and help carry them through this tough time.

“We have a three-game season left,” he said. “You just want to step forward and move on.”

“You can’t point fingers. We all have stuff we have to do. Even I can improve on some things. We need to lead the younger guys and pull forward.”