DFC
Although I am aware that sometimes airlines have gone down with surprisingly minor problems and that vacuum and pitot/static problems specifically can be a challenge to deal with in real life - I remain surprised that pulling that kind of emergency on a ME/IR caused a high percentage to loose control. I am assuming these are people who normally would cope well with a simulated instrument failure.
The freezing comment was simply to reflect earlier in the thread where you indicated it was the lack of pitot heat that was the cue to kill the ASI.
I think in support of some of the other comments - this trial indicates a lot more about the pilots ability to handle an instrument failure than the basic task of the transition from VMC to IMC.