Bill Fly,
Under Duress gave a pretty accurate description of what SHOULD have happened. Airline Pilots ARE “trained dogs” in certain circumstances. Few emergencies require immediate and appropriate action but stick-shaker on rotation and/or Unreliable Airspeed are definitely two of them. The metaphorical Swiss cheese started lining up from rotation and errors compounded from that point. It was badly mis-handled. Was MCAS the ultimate contributing factor? Absolutely. Was it the sole cause? Absolutely not. Most professional Pilots reading this thread with experience on the B737 would expect to do much better. By following published procedures. And exercising good Airmanship. Maybe that sounds like arrogance but that’s the nature of the beast.
Boeing and the families of victims are in a world of pain right now and comments should be worded accordingly.
But there is much more to this than MCAS.