Patriots Links for Friday, 12/7

First off, there's a Patriots chat with Christopher L. Gasper today at noon on the Boston Globe website.

Dan Shaughnessy has a column up about Anthony Smith's guarantee being the perfect extra piece of motivation for the Patriots to come out and play with extra motivation
on Sunday.

Mike Reiss has an article on the Patriots' attempts to improve their run defense in practice this week.  Reiss also has a report that John Kerry is trying to make the Patriots' final game against the Giants available to a wider audience in his blog.  The game is currently scheduled to air on NFL Network and local Channel 5 in Boston, which will not allow all of New England to see the game.  This is also the lead piece in his notes column.

With the Herald, Karen Guregian has an article about the Patriots' recent struggles on defense.  Guregian also has a notes column up, saying that Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers are much improved since the Patriots last faced them.

In a similar vein, Jeff Horrigan has a piece on the team's need to improve on both sides of the ball.

At the same time, though, not everyone is down on the Patriots.  Horrigan has another article explaining that Jabar Gaffney is feeling more confident after his game-winning TD catch Monday in Baltimore.

Finally, Michael Felger has a column urging the Patriots to continue playing all-out in pursuit of a perfect season.