CLEMSON — Avieon Terrell said it emphatically.

“We knew that coming into the week. We were going to dominate,” the Clemson cornerback said.

And that is exactly what they did in the Tigers’ 42-21 victory over Georgia Tech Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

Clemson (6-4, 3-4 ACC) held the Yellow Jackets to 254 total yards, while Terrell and his friends in the secondary picked off quarterback Haynes King four times. One of the Tigers’ four interceptions was returned 46 yards for a touchdown by Shelton Lewis.

“They had not faced anybody like us yet,” Terrell said. “So, we already knew what was going to happen.”

What happened is the Tigers confused King all afternoon. The ACC’s number two guy in terms of total yards and one of the league’s top passers was bewildered all day by what the secondary was doing.

King totaled just 126 yards of offense, though he averaged 319.4 yards per game coming in. He completed just 13-of-31 passes for 129 yards and had a passer rating of 72.4, all season lows.

“He was confused,” said Terrell, who grabbed one of the Tigers’ four interceptions. “Coach Wes (Goodwin) drew up a good defense. He did not know if we were going zone or man. My DBs coach always tells me to tax in my alignments. So, if I am playing zone, I show man. If I am in man, I show I am in zone.

“We were just mixing it up out there.”

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney could not say for sure how confused King was, but he knows his defense got after him. Besides the four interceptions the Tigers also sacked the Georgia Tech quarterback four times and hurried him three other times.

“We just lined up, communicated and made sure we had all the gaps covered,” Swinney said. “We did a nice job with our coverage, but the biggest thing is we created a new line of scrimmage. We created movement and he just was not able to get comfortable.”

No one on Tech’s offense was comfortable.

The Yellow Jackets (5-5, 4-3 ACC) had just 89 total yards at halftime. King was just 2-for-7 for 1 yard throwing the ball and had minus-8 yards of total offense.

“We just knew we had to stay on top of routes, and with our D-Line, he did not know where to go with the ball,” Lewis said. “We just made sure we stayed on our P’s and Q’s and just played within the system.”

Clemson will get set for another big test next Saturday when No. 24 North Carolina visits Death Valley for a 3:30 p.m. kick.

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