There is no way out of this State of Origin series for Queensland. They'll make changes to their team after last night's flogging, and they'll try to make adjustments to the way they play, but NSW are set now. The Blues will clinch the series at home in Game 2 in three weeks.
The tables have turned and the inevitable return of fullback Billy Slater and five-eighth Johnathan Thurston, if he is fit, won't be enough for the Maroons. Neither will the possible additions of forwards Jarrod Wallace and Coen Hess and winger Valentine Holmes.
The Queensland side will be better, but still not a match for a NSW team that will naturally improve as well, coming off a magnificent 28-4 win on enemy soil at Suncorp Stadium.
When, after one team's domination over many years, the roles are finally reversed - and for good reason - it is near impossible to turn it back around again in a hurry.
This is different to when the Blues won the 2014 series - the only series they have won in 11 years from 2006 onwards. That was a tight series in which NSW won the first game 12-8 and the second game 6-4, before the Maroons won the dead rubber 32-8.
Jarryd Hayne was the overwhelming reason the Blues won that series, with his superb performances in the first two games. Last night it was a smash-up across the board, and centre Hayne was just one of many fine players for NSW.
He wasn't the best on the field. That honour rightfully went to prop Andrew Fifita, whose first-half performance was monstrous. Big "Feef" set the Blues on the way to victory as he powered through the Queensland defensive line like a block of flats on wheels and dropped his skill in on top of that.
James Tedesco's performance at fullback for NSW would win an Origin man-of-the-match award nine times out of 10, but unfortunately for him this was the other time. Fifita, as Robert Palmer once sang about something completely different, was simply irresistible.
But everywhere on the field NSW had winners. Aaron Woods, the other starting prop, hooker Nathan Peats, making his Origin debut, second-rower and new captain Boyd Cordner, David Klemmer running amok off the bench. And so the list goes on.
Mitchell Pearce, making his Origin return at halfback and finally feeling at home. He got knocked out in the second half, but if he has trouble remembering anything it'll be fun catching up with it on video.
There are moments in games, and then there are MOMENTS.
There were still 29 minutes left and Queensland were down only 12-4 when they were forced into a line drop-out. Hooker and captain Cameron Smith, in the ultimate risk and reward scenario, chose to take a short drop-out.
The Maroons had been under the pump and Smith had obviously decided they needed cheap ball if they were going to survive that critical stage of the game. But it didn't come off. The Blues got the ball, started their set from close range and moments later Tedesco was in for a try. Game over.
Smith shouldn't be condemned for that. He should actually be praised for identifying the situation and taking affirmative action, rather than just accepting the conventional option and hoping the Maroons could hold the Blues out.
The truth is, had Queensland regathered from that drop-out it would have only delayed the inevitable. Apart from a short period late in the first half, during which the Maroons scored their only try, this was a game NSW dominated.
It wasn't the case that Queensland played badly on the night, either. It was just that the Blues were so good.
This was the best performance by a NSW team since games two and three of the 2005 series, when Andrew Johns came back from injury to play two of his greatest-ever games at any level and steer the team from an 0-1 deficit to win the series 2-1.
Queensland will be hoping Thurston, 34, with the support of Slater, 34 on June 18, can come back to do the same for the Maroons in game two of this series at ANZ Stadium, but the scenario is different to what it was when NSW turned that 2005 series around.
The Blues have asserted their authority as a team. Even towards the end of the game, when they could have lost intensity with victory in hand, they repeatedly busted a gut to stop Queensland scoring.
There has been a changing of the guard and it was there for all to see last night. The end at Origin level is suddenly a lot closer for some of the older players in the Queensland side. Second-rower Sam Thaiday, for example.
Sometimes it takes many years, but things eventually change, and, boy, did that happen last night.