That is pretty much exactly it. The fight was a 2v4, but my wingman got hit almost immediately every time. I stayed below 500 AGL until the merge, popping expendables to avoid the BVR shots. Compared to flying higher I felt like the missiles were having a harder time tracking me against clutter, but I don't know how rigorously the sim models that. In any case it was the only way I could survive to get into visual range...
At the merge, the Eagles stayed up on their perch, so I performed an Immelman directly underneath them, which presented me with two hot tailpipes (well, four, because Eagles). Two heater kills, and immediately into an ugly chandelle-ish circle to get some energy and turn inside Eagle 3 for another sidewinder shot. At that point I was completely out of energy at medium altitude, and Eagle 4 put a Sparrow into me.
This was also the last of six or seven disastrous tries at the same setup, and the only one where I even got close before getting popped, so there was a fair amount of luck involved too. But since then I've had more success with NOE evasion with other platforms, so I feel pretty confident in that tactic at least.