Parramatta coach Daniel Anderson has questioned his players' commitment and courage and accused them of lacking pride after the Bulldogs racked up 30 second half points to overwhelm the Eels 48-18 at ANZ Stadium on Sunday.
Parramatta trailed 18-12 at half-time and was getting over the top of a tiring Bulldogs outfit before capitulating badly after the break to concede five tries.
Anderson didn't attempt to hide his disgust at the meek surrender, which saw the Eels plummet to their third straight loss.
"We need to tough it out, be grittier in our character and be grittier in our attitude and put your body on the line for the full 80 (minutes)," he declared.
"We came up with some soft decisions when it mattered."
"It's an attitude, it's a character (thing). You can put yourself in the tough, courageous, uncompromising position on the football field and you can also put yourself in an option where you know the ball's not going to come your way or you won't have to make the big defensive play."
"I thought we did that on a few occasions in the second half and that's disappointing."
"(I) appeal to the players' sense of pride in performance, pride in wearing a Parramatta jersey, because I thought at times we didn't have a sense of pride in our performance."
"We could have gone into half-time leading but I thought we didn't commit in the second half, that's the simple fact of the matter and it's pretty obvious to see."
Anderson warned his side its season would get a whole lot worse unless it started to lift in a number of key areas.
"It's not where I thought we'd be (after six rounds)," he said.
"It's how far we're behind other teams (that's a concern) and we are."
"We were beaten by a better team today and unless our performance improves and we have the consistent attitude over the course of 80 minutes, then we won't compete in the NRL this year - we'll be languishing."
Dogs coach Kevin Moore and skipper Andrew Ryan both took thinly-veiled swipes at Parramatta's feeble display.
"I thought the way we defended today, if we were up against a better side who threw more at us, we could have been in a bit of trouble," Moore said.
Ryan concurred, adding: "We made some pretty ordinary defensive errors today and if we were against one of the really top sides in good form, they probably would have given us a touch up in that first half."
With his side ahead 18-12 at half-time but showing signs of fatigue, Moore had his concerns at the break.
But four tries in the opening 20 minutes of the second half blew the tackle Eels off the park.
"I thought we hung in there and started the second half strongly, which we needed to do, and that probably got us over the line," he said.
"We're really pleased with the result. I thought we played really well in patches."
"After scoring a few early tries we grew in confidence and it's coming together nicely."
Asked if he thought his team, which has won five of six games, was in front of where he thought they'd be at this stage, Moore replied: "Maybe on the competition table we're a bit higher than I thought we might have been, but I always held pretty high hopes."
"We recruited in the right areas – No 9 (Michael Ennis), No 7 (Brett Kimmorley), Luke Patten back, some grunt up front and a bit of speed out wide."
"I always thought we’d get it together (but) we've got to remember we're only six weeks into the competition so we can’t get ahead of ourselves."