Rick,
It’s always good to have an open mind and look to ‘better’ existing strategies. The only thing I would be cautious of, is to not optimise this event out – or any event for that matter. Each of these ‘uncomfortable’ events are slightly different from prior ones, which in turn means each future event will also be slightly different.
Usually the better action is to look closely at the backtest, study the bumps along the way, and accept them for what they are.