The Hawks held their opponents to just three first-half goals and only nine for the match, conceding less than 70 points for the third straight game.
The 2008 premiership coach said his backline's ability to nullify the Bulldogs' key marking targets played a large part in the victory.
"To keep the Western Bulldogs to three goals on their home track in the first half was a super effort by all our players, but particularly our back six who were really strong," Clarkson said post-match.
"[Josh] Gibson, [Tom] Murphy and [Ryan] Schoenmakers really took control of aerial balls and stopped some of their key forwards being a significant threat for them, and that was pivotal to us being able to get out to a bit of a lead by half-time."
So good was Gibson on the dangerous Barry Hall, the Bulldogs' key spearhead was subbed from the game early in the third quarter without contributing a goal.
It continued a rich vein of form for the former Kangaroo, who alongside his effective stopping job, also gathered 19 disposals and hurt the Bulldogs with his creativity.
"[Gibson] has been terrific for us this year, but it's nothing we wouldn't expect from him really, because we recruited him to do big jobs like that," Clarkson said.
"There were some really pivotal contests one-on-one with Hall early in the game today and Josh was outstanding being able to halve those contests and in some cases provide us with some rebound as well.
"If they were going to kick a winning score they probably needed Hall to be pretty pivotal in providing a target for them, and for Josh to be able to suffocate that threat was really important."
Hawthorn's smaller defenders were also crucial in shaping the match, feasting on a swag of uncontested possession as they chipped among each other in the back half of the ground.
Seven Hawks took more than 10 uncontested marks, led by Brent Guerra, Murphy and Matt Suckling, who had 15 each.
To put that in context, the entire Western Bulldogs line-up took only 51 uncontested marks, with Matthew Boyd's six the most for his team.
Although happy his players managed to limit the Bulldogs' run with the tactic, Clarkson felt the stop and chip game was a little overdone.
"You need to control the ball against the Dogs," Clarkson said.
"They're a side that if you give them possession of the footy they can cut you to pieces with their feet and we were very mindful that we wanted to control the ball where we could.
"But we were probably a little bit too slow on occasions.
"I thought we could have moved the ball forward to free options that we had forward of the footy and didn't take them."
Clarkson was pleased with the performance of big man Max Bailey, who made it though his second senior match since his third knee reconstruction and is looking like a viable long-term option for an injury-ravaged ruck division.
"He was really important early for us," Clarkson said.
"He got some really clean hit-outs and gave us some early momentum.
"I think we got four goals early from stoppages and a lot of them were due to Max's dominance in the ruck."
Chance Bateman was subbed from the game at quarter-time after suffering an ankle injury, and Clarkson said he is a doubtful starter against Fremantle next Sunday.
