Spencer Petras with 4 turnovers as the Aggies fall to UNLV 50-34 at home

LOGAN – Spencer Petras was treated harshly by the Utah State crowd Friday night.

In the second quarter, fans began chanting for substitute Bryson Barnes to come into the game; They also booed Petras.

It was a night like that for the Aggies (1-5), who suffered a resounding 50-34 loss to the UNLV Rebels (5-1) at Maverik Stadium on Friday.

Petras had a strong passing game at the end, throwing for 461 yards on 41 of 59 passes and three touchdowns; He broke the school record for most completions in a single game.

But in that second quarter, he gave up the ball on three consecutive possessions — one fumble and two interceptions. In the fourth, in the middle of a good drive, he threw his third interception of the night.

“Those turnovers absolutely killed us,” interim coach Nate Dreiling said.

In fact, Utah State outscored UNLV in total offense 584-546, but that was in passing yards. The Aggies lost the running game 313-123.

Friday's game was very similar to last week's game against Boise State. The Aggies looked much better in the second half, but the game was already decided at that point. Utah State trailed 14-0 midway through the first quarter and answered just before the end of the frame. But at halftime the Rebels led 41-7.

The second half was a different story; The Aggies outscored the Rebels 27-9.

Dreiling said his message to the team at halftime was that you “either have to go out there and act, be a smart football team and have discipline, or don't go back on the field.”

Utah State began the second half with Petras throwing a 24-yard touchdown pass to Jack Hestera, who had a breakout game with 10 catches for 152 yards. Petras later failed on a play and then managed to complete a 13-yard touchdown pass to the Jalen Royals.

The third touchdown pass Petras delivered came in the fourth quarter – a 6-yarder to Broc Lane.

“The best part is that Spencer is there and he’s very talented,” Dreiling said. “I’m proud of how he fought back. Most people would have just done it and played a terrible game.”

Senior defender Cian Slone expressed confidence the team can turn that around, even though Utah State's defense has played poor first-half games most of the season.

“We definitely made a film of that,” Slone said. “But if we want to be the team we want to be, we have to play four quarters of perfect football. I know we can do this. You saw in the second half how dominant we were in defense. If we can.’ Just do it in the first, second, third and fourth quarters. I don't see how we can't win the rest of the year.

For two weeks in a row, Dreiling has mentioned the schedule as a reason why the Aggies are on a five-game losing streak. In four of the last five games, Utah State faced teams that had a chance of making the College Football Playoff, he said.

From next week, however, the opposition will become more manageable, so to speak – at least on paper.

“From here on out, it’s teams that aren’t 5-1 or 4-1, or USC, Utah or Boise State with a Heisman player,” Dreiling said. “We know we had good competition; this will be great for us. When we go back to teams that maybe don't have this caliber yet, we have to make sure everything works out and we fly.” “

Utah State has a home game against New Mexico next week at 2:00 p.m. MDT.