Maybe they tried. We dont know what their comm system status was at the time, and we also haven't heard tapes yet.
I think that it's more logical to err towards the notion that two competent pilots sat at the controls and did a "pilot act" rather than the opposite notion that they had no idea what they were doing.
Air france never communicated anything either. El-Al in AMS communicated very little. Aloha Air back in the 80's tried to communicate but came out very broken.
When structural damage occurs, sometimes time is limiting and communication very unreliable.