AUBURN, Ala. -- Mike Williams missed essentially all of last season after breaking a bone in his neck 12 plays into Clemson's season opener.

He began making up for lost time Saturday night.

Playing in his first game in more than a year, the junior wide receiver caught nine passes for a career-high 174 yards as No. 2 Clemson held off a late surge from Auburn to post a 19-13 win at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

"I want to come out every game and have a big game," Williams said. "And a game like this should help us out down the road."

Junior running back Wayne Gallman rushed 30 times for 123 yards and a touchdown, and quarterback Deshaun Watson completed 19 of 34 passes for 248 yards with one touchdown and an interception for Clemson.

Clemson led 19-6 after Watson connected with Hunter Renfrow for a 16-yard touchdown with 10 minutes left in the game. Auburn got a 9-yard scoring run from Kerryon Johnson with 3:22 left to cut Clemson's lead to 19-13 and set up a wild final few minutes.

Clemson drove to the Auburn 15 before stalling and turning the ball over on downs with 40 seconds left. Auburn responded by driving to Clemson's 40-yard line in the waning seconds before two passes into the end zone came up empty.

"I played the odds, and I wanted to put it in the hands of our defense," Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. "If they (Auburn) march down the field with 40 seconds and no timeouts and score, I'm going to go down and shake their hand and say, 'Great job.'"

Swinney almost had to do just that. Safety Jadar Johnson had to bat down passes that were tipped into the air in the end zone on the game's final two plays.

It was the third consecutive victory for Clemson (1-0) against Auburn (0-1) and came in front of a raucous crowd of 87,451 -- the 17th consecutive sellout at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Still, it was largely inconsistent night for Clemson's typically high-powered offense, which had posted 500 or more yards of offense in 11 consecutive games, including 550 yards in a 45-40 loss to Alabama in the national championship game in January.

"I'm very proud of our defense," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. "That is one of the best teams in college football, and holding those guys to 19 points was really unbelievable. That encourages me and tells me that this team is going to be a great."

Clemson's defense turned in a strong performance as well, allowing Auburn only 38 total yards in the first half, including 1 yard rushing, but still led just 10-3 at the break.

Clemson opened the second half with a 40-yard field goal by Greg Huegel for a 13-3 advantage, but Auburn's Daniel Carlson responded with a 32-yarder to cut Clemson's lead to 13-6 with 13:46 remaining.

Clemson fell behind Auburn 3-0 early in the second quarter, then dominated the remainder of the half to take a seven-point lead into the locker room.

Carlson's 53-yard field goal -- the sixth of his career from 50 yards or more -- with 12:58 left in the first half appeared to wake up Clemson's offense, which had struggled to muster any consistency to that point.

Watson responded by leading Clemson on a 13-play, 84-yard drive capped by a 1-yard run from Gallman for a 7-3 lead. Gallman ran behind a pair of big blockers -- defensive linemen Christian Wilkins and Dexter Lawrence -- to score on the fourth-and-1 play with 7:45 left in the half.

Clemson then ended the half by driving 64 yards in eight plays to set up Huegel's 30-yard field goal with seven seconds left in the half.

Johnson had 94 yards on 23 carries for Auburn, which gained 224 of its 262 yards in the second half.

Auburn used three quarterbacks, but none were able to generate much offense. Starter Sean White completed 10 of 21 passes for 140 yards and one interception, while Jeremy Johnson was 4 of 6 with an interception and was sacked twice. John Franklin III completed his lone pass for a loss of 3 yards.

"Sean White is the starter," Malzahn said. "He was the number one quarterback out there first, but we played all three. We may continue to do that. We'll have to see how each game goes."

Linebacker Nick Ruffin led Auburn with 10 tackles, while Auburn safety Tray Matthews had nine stops, including eight solo tackles.

NOTES: Clemson junior QB Deshaun Watson is 19-2 as a starter to rank first in school history with a .900 percentage. ... Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, a former player at Alabama, is 10-6 as a player and coach against Auburn. ... Eight members of Clemson's team are sons of former Clemson players. ... Auburn has produced eight 1,000-yard rushers since 2010, most among FBS teams. ... FS Johnathan "Rudy" Ford was the only Auburn player to enter this season with more than 200 career tackles (216). ... Auburn PK Daniel Carlson has made 98 consecutive PATs, the fourth-longest streak in program history.