The point is that the Captain is more likely in his 11,000 hours of being caught in a monster before and to have reacted correctly. As has been said before 3 degrees works but you have to ignore height loss/gain. If the 2 F/O's had never experienced this terror before it makes it more difficult to envsage a sucessful outcome. I have been in the middle twice and as anyone who has experienced it, it is frightening, not only the violence but the noise. One really questions the integrity of the airframe