Try a quickstop with 25 to 30 degrees nose up, tightening the flare with the collective almost fully down - the extra rotor thrust from the flare effect is holding you up and you have a RoD flow opposing the very small amount of induced flow through the rotor, Therefore the amount of downwash, and its speed are greatly reduced from the normal hover values.
Then you realise you have held the flare too long, the speed is very low and you are about to lose ETL.
Now you grab a big handful of lever just as the aircraft is starting to descend.
So you have 1. Low speed, 2. a RoD flow opposing the induced flow just as if you were in a vertical descent and 3. Power applied to try and stop that RoD. You have caught up wit your downwash because it wasn't moving very fast.
If you are really 'unlucky' or an even worse pilot you might even have a downwind component for good measure.
I didn't say it was VRS but all the ingredients for the recipe are there.
Jim - if you have 20 degrees nose up and the lever almost fully down, where is the airflow meeting the rotor? VRS doesn't need a vertical descent, steep but not vertical.
If he over-pitched, is there evidence that the Nr decayed?