Key play breakdown: Thayer takes it to the house

An inside look at how the most important play of State's 34-23 win against Ball State

The Wolfpack scored two touchdowns late in the first half to take a 20-7 halftime lead on Ball State, but failed to build on the momentum by going three-and-out on its first possession of the third quarter.

After State's defense got a quick stop of its own, Thayer Thomas took matters into his own hands and put six points on the board himself by taking a Cardinals' punt and returning it 76 yards for what turned out to be the decisive score.

Here's how the big play unfolded: 

Instead of executing a conventional punt as he had earlier in the game, Ball State's Nathan Snyder went for a rugby style kick, taking several step to his right before booting the ball downfield.

Snyder's punt is a line drive that doesn't have much hang time, giving Thomas plenty of time to catch the ball, assess the situation, set his blocking and get up a head of steam before the Ball State gunners get to him.

Thomas starts out heading left toward the far sideline, but doesn't see an opening, so he changes his mind and cuts back against the grain. We'll let him take it from here: "When I went left, I didn’t see anything, so I tried to go back to the field," he said. "The funny thing is we only had 10 guys on the field at the time. We didn’t even have 11 guys out there, so it was pretty crazy.

"I knew once I got around the first wall when I got back to the middle I could have either gone left or right," Thomas said. "So I chose right. I felt like that was the best way."

As it turned out, right was the best way. But even though Thomas had broken contain and was well on the way to outracing the Cardinals' coverage team, let's take a moment to admire the block by teammate Tyler Baker-Williams that sent Ball State's Cam Gillentine flying head over heels just inside the Wolfpack logo.

From there it was just a matter of Thomas turning on the jets and heading to the end zone. "I was looking at myself in the (scoreboard big screen) and nobody was really around, so I was like, 'OK, I've got this.'"