I think that context matters here, he then went on to face Iowa St, who was tied for 3rd in the conference at the time of the game, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State who ended up 2nd in the conference and played in the conference Championship game. Slovis was more of a veteran and yet made the same mistakes that you mentioned, Slovis has been playing nothing but P5 football since his Freshman year and played average at best at times... several times our WR's had to make circus crazy catches to bail out Slovis.
I think context matters here... starting your first game 8 weeks into the season is not an easy task.