CLEMSON — Seven ranked college football teams were upset in Week 6, including No. 2 Alabama, No. 4 Tennessee, No. 9 Missouri and No. 10 Michigan.

Now No. 11 Clemson football (4-1, 3-0 ACC) avoided a loss Saturday, defeating Florida State 29-13 on the road to win its fourth straight game. Still, the shocking upsets across the country reminded Clemson and coach Dabo Swinney that wins are never guaranteed.

"I couldn't believe it. I didn't know anything about any of that, until I got into the locker room," Swinney said Tuesday. "College football did us a favor because this is a week where if you pay attention to what people say on the outside, they're gonna be saying, 'Hey, we're supposed to go win.'

"This ain't a game of supposed to. This is a game of what you do. It's a game of performance, and that's why I think we've been really consistent. We've created that windshield mentality for years."

Those upsets lifted Clemson in both polls and into the College Football Playoff in various projections. The Tigers look to avoid being upset at Wake Forest (2-3, 1-1) on Saturday (noon ET, ESPN).

Clemson is 37-8 in true road games since 2015, having the fourth-best winning percentage in the nation and tied for the most wins in that span. The Tigers have played well on the road, but Saturday's ranked upsets were a reminder for Swinney's team to never overlook an opponent.

"You've got to show up and play every single week, and that's why we talk about playing to a standard. You don't play to an opponent, to a record. Like last week, (Florida State) was 1-4, and you get caught up in that, you're getting beat. …

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"It's really hard to win when you're supposed to win because you got other teams that pay attention to all these things too. Everybody's got good coaches. There's a lot of parity in college football."

Clemson has only one ranked opponent left on its regular season schedule — No. 24 Pittsburgh on Nov. 16.

Derrian Carter covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at dcarter@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DerrianCarter00

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Clemson football: Dabo Swinney on Alabama, Tennessee upset losses