ATLANTA- After holding No. 1 Georgia’s offense in check over the first half of play, Clemson’s defense allowed the Bulldogs to score touchdowns on four of their first five possessions in the second half, as the 14th-ranked Tigers were blown out 34-3 in the season-opener in Atlanta.

Georgia’s offense racked up 287 yards of offense over the final two quarters, with missed assignments, players being slow to react and missed tackles all helping lead to the second-half meltdown.

Sophomore Peter Woods, who got his first start at defensive end, finished up with six total tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and a key first half sack, noted after the loss that it will be imperative for the group to flush this performance quickly.

“We took this one to the chin, but I’m just going to keep saying it,” Woods said. “There’s no hope for a better yesterday, but we can do something about it tomorrow. That’s what we plan to do, just come out here with focus, intensity, and get ready to have a great week of practice and a great game on Saturday.”

After the second half breakdowns that helped lead to the blowout loss, Woods proclaimed that the defense just needs to get back to work and prepare for App State, who visits Death Valley on Saturday for an 8 p.m. kickoff.

“The standard is still the standard,” Woods added. “Just like I said, playoff ready game one. Now it’s playoff ready game two. We’re going to approach it with the same intensity as if we were going to play the No. 1 team in the nation like we did this past weekend. That’s the mindset we had in the locker room… The conversation we had.”

The Bulldogs averaged an impressive 7.5 yards per play, 6.3 yards per rush and racked up 447 yards of total offense against a Clemson defense that was expected to be one of the better units in the nation.

Woods insisted that what happened in the second half was not for a lack of effort, but at the same time there are a lot of things the defense needs to clean up over the next week of practice.

“There’s always little things and big things, too, that we can do to be better on that side of the ball,” said Woods. “We played our hearts out. We’re going to come back and we’re going to punch it, fight, we’re not giving up, we’re not quitting. That’s not in our DNA.”

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