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For much of the last week, the Seahawks were surrounded by noise louder than anything generated by Panthers fans at Bank of America Stadium.

And with a last-minute, game-winning touchdown drive, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson was able to silence both, at least for a moment.

The Seahawks circled the wagons around their quarterback, who was in the middle of a debate about his relative hue last week.

“Those kinds of things are overshadowing his play,” Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman said, via Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times. “He’s having a fantastic season and they are talking about lots of them things that nobody said. Anonymous sources and things like that could be made up by anyone. … Until someone in this locker room says anything negative then you’ve got to take that with a grain of salt. Anybody can make up anything and say a source said it and go on with it and say it’s a story.

“But I don’t think anybody on our team [feels that way]. They support their quarterback and he’s done a great job for us.”

He certainly did Sunday, hitting Luke Willson with the game’s only touchdown with 47 seconds left, the 12th time he’s led a game-winning drive in the fourth quarter or overtime. He was also proactive in discussing the sensitive topic of the last week.

“In terms of me, the ‘not black enough’ thing I think you are talking about, I don’t even know what that means,” Wilson said. “I believe that I am an educated young male that is not perfect. That tries to do things right. That just tries to lead and tries to help others and tries to win games for this football team. And that’s all I focus on.”

He also turned it into a chance to galvanize his team, saying the stories were “people trying to find ways to knock us down. But we just keep swinging and keep believing in each other.”

Of course, the result of one game might not mean any more than Wilson’s pigment when it comes to the fundamental issues the Seahawks will have moving forward. It is still very much a team in transition after last year’s Super Bowl run, and when they eventually put a lot of green in front of Wilson, it’s going to change yet again when they won’t be able to afford such a supporting cast.