Coach Brad Arthur believes the Parramatta of old would have thrown their finals hopes away rather than claw back to defeat St George Illawarra 26-20 and remain in the hunt for a top-eight berth.
The Eels had been expected to breeze past their 16th-placed opponents and back into the top eight at CommBank Stadium on Sunday.
Dragons winger Mikaele Ravalawa had other ideas, running in a career-high four tries to help the visitors put on 20 unanswered points and lead by 10 early in the second half.
But in his first game since June after being stood down for sexual touching, Dylan Brown put up a cross-field kick that led to Bryce Cartwright's second try and a game-winning lead with 10 minutes to play.
"At 20-10, with 20 unanswered points against us, we still had the fight, we kept our composure," Arthur said.
"There's plenty of times in the past when we would've thrown that away.
"There's positives there."
The Eels must still claim two of their remaining three games to finish the season with a winning record - no mean feat given ladder leaders Brisbane and Penrith await.
But they nevertheless finish round 23 in hot pursuit of a finals spot, sitting behind eighth-placed South Sydney on points differential only.
"We shouldn't have any concern about motive or want or desire because or season's in the balance, isn't it?" Arthur said of Parramatta's run home.
Brown was important for the Eels early.
His line break down the left had the Eels on the way to their second try in the set following their first, and he twice came up with try-saving defensive plays in the first half.
"I knew he'd come with effort and he'd compete," Arthur said of Brown.
"His attack was so-so but he'll get better.
"The main thing was his defensive actions for us."
But the Eels' defensive steel couldn't hold, and on three occasions Ravalawa had the better of his opposite man - debutant Arthur Miller-Stephen - on the right wing.
Arthur switched Sean Russell onto that edge to help stem the bleeding in the second half.
But Ravalawa would not be discouraged, flirting with the touch-line as he beat Eels captain Clint Gutherson and became the first Dragon since 2009 to score four tries in a game.
With field position came points for the Eels, who drew level thanks to a beautiful flat ball from Ryan Matterson to an unlikely tryscorer in prop Junior Paulo.
Cartwright's second try had the Eels home but Dragons interim coach Ryan Carr insisted there were plenty of positives for his side.
"I thought our effort was one of the best efforts I've ever seen from a team, to be honest," he said.
"I thought we were super brave, tough, resilient. I know the scoreboard doesn't show it but I thought we deserved to win that game."
On a weekend punctuated by two send-offs, Ravalawa and Zac Lomax could both consider themselves lucky to have remained afield after being placed on report for a high tackle and head slam, respectively.
