It’s tough to really gauge what the Patriots have just two days into camp, but the defense definitely had a stronger showing on Thursday compared to the offense’s performance on Wednesday.

Here’s what went down for roughly another hour-and-a-half session on a muggy, yet tolerable morning.

-The legendary Peter King was on hand to cover practice and agent Drew Rosenhaus was also in attendance. It was a pleasure to meet King, who has inspired reporters and writers for decades now.

-Mr. Kraft and Mac had about a 45-second or. minute conversation during early positional drills, cool little moment to see the owner and his new “golden ticket” back to the top of the mountain interacting at the start of another season.

-Defensive back Terrance Mitchell was the first guy out, followed by Mac. Mitchell was actually out getting loose a good 10 minutes or so before Mac appeared.

-Jones received another “face of the franchise” ovation from the fans as he jogged up the stairs and towards the practice field closest to the stands.

-Speaking of the stands, they were packed again today, although it was a slightly late arriving crowd compared to Wednesday. If people were doubting how much interest this new version of the Pats would draw, I think it’s been answered pretty early on, this is still a football region.

-As Bill Belichick spoke with reporters and players filtered out, Matthew Judon played catch with fans, basically doing a side-shuffle lap around the practice field as he tossed the ball back & forth, working his way around the end zone closest to the stadium and then the sideline while wearing a red hoodie.

-As Kendrick Bourne and Damien Harris took the field, both of them had a hop in their step and were barking like dogs while jogging out. Bourne’s energy has been consistent throughout minicamp and the first two days of training camp.

-Lots of red zone work again today. In the walk-through type period to start the day after stretching and positional drills, DeVante Parker picked up where he left off with a pretty leaping catch in the back left corner.

-Lil’ Jordan Humphrey and Tyquan Thornton look smooth so far.

-In the first bit of 7-on-7, Jonnu Smith made a fantastic leaping catch in the end zone, but false started, negating the great grab.

-Soon thereafter, Hunter Henry made a great catch of his own, getting up to haul in a ball from Mac in the back left corner that drew one of the biggest cheers of the day from the crowd.

-Throughout practice, Tristan Vizcaino was booting missiles that had people in both the family tent and media tent yelling “heads up” regularly in-between plays on the other field.

-I mentioned the length of defensive back Brendan Schooler yesterday and he got some reps on Thursday. I’m not sure if he can play since it’s way too early to tell, but the length alone makes him intriguing.

-At one point, the Pats receivers and DB’s ran a drill where receivers caught a short pass and broke up field as Troy Brown swatted at the ball with a pad. Once looking upfield, there were defensive backs waiting for them to break and make the “tackle” in the open field. Interesting dynamic seeing which guys on offense look shifty (Thornton) with a tackler approaching.

-In 7-on-7’s a bit later, Parker had the play of the day with a ridiculous back-shoulder, toe-tap catch in the end zone on a ball from Mac. The throw made it seem like the two of them had been playing together for years. If Jones is going to have this kind of chemistry with receivers this early in his second year, the sky may be the limit.

-Nelson Agholor did a great job separating from Malcom Butler in the end zone during one rep as Mac scrambled to by time and find someone open. Tre Nixon and Bourne also had nice grabs in the 7’s session.

-Tough to get an exact read on who was calling plays on Thursday. It was pretty clear that was Matt Patricia’s job on Wednesday, but at times it looked like Coach Belichick and Joe Judge were alternating as well. At one point, offensive assistant Tyler Hughes was also in the backfield chatting with players, but it didn’t appear that he was calling plays.

-For the last hour or so it was all defense. Josh Bledsoe had a great PBU against Smith on a jump ball during one of the final 7-on-7 reps.

-The pass rush stood out when the team went to 11-on-11 late in the practice. Mac and Zappe both had to either step up, roll out or would’ve taken a sack if it was live on just about every snap.

-This was the first time there was music blaring to try and simulate more crowd noise. It’ll happen a bunch more as camp progresses. Only a handful of songs, but it was mostly classic rock, no country or rap.

-Combined, Zappe and Jones went 1-for-11 in the final period, with the lone completion coming on a short throw to Henry. Funny enough, Coach Belichick had said that one rep would determine whether the offense or defense had to do pushups despite the defense’s dominance.

-The team hit the conditioning hill at 11:05, but before they took their turns with sprints, the wide receivers and quarterbacks took some time to work on deep balls for a few minutes.

While everyone knows that this offense needs to score points in bunches this year for the Patriots to keep up with some of their opponents, it was very encouraging to see the defense show up the way it did on Thursday. Despite not wearing pads yet, the fact the defense was able to answer the offense on Wednesday signifies we should have a very competitive camp.

Check back tomorrow for Day 3 of sights, sounds & thoughts from camp and as always, keep checking out nefootballjournal.com for all your New England football coverage.